The four-week program is divided into four stages: site analysis, conceptual design, structural research, and design-build. Students experienced the entire process from design to construction: starting with site analysis, researching local materials and building techniques, and ultimately developing a complete design plan from concept to implementation. By closely integrating space, structure, materials, and the building process, the workshop designed a new spatial node for Xiangtang Village.
Red Canopy combines the ordinary with the concept of circular construction, exploring a sustainable architecturaldesign method that is locally rooted. The main components of the building come from easily accessible localmaterials, assembled using low-tech construction techniques commonly used in the village. The thin bamboostrips forming the ribs were harvested nearby with the help of local villagers, and the woven fabric is a cheap polypropylenematerial commonly used for wind and rain protection in this area. This practicality-oriented hybridapproach creates a new ordinariness between temporary and permanent, natural and artificial, local and global.All components are minimally processed to retain maximum reuse potential, allowing them to be returned to thevillagers for different everyday uses in the future
Principal Designer: Wang Shuaizhong (CUHK), Zhao Yue (SEU), Federico Bertagna (ETH Zurich), and Bartosz Bukowski (ETH Zurich)
Design and Construction Team: Ding Rulan, Gao Heyu, Wang Xiaonan, Xu Yiping, Yan Han, Zhao Yilin, Zhou Jingjing, Zhu Zhuoying (NJU), Fong Sze Yuet, Hou Long, So Cheuk Hin, Yu Hei Tung (CUHK)
Co-organising Team: Hua Xiaoning, Hu Youpei, Meng Xianchuan (NJU)
Volunteers: Lu Xingyu, Liang Pengwei, Xu Xiande (NJU)
Organizers: Nanjing University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Collaborators: Southeast University, ETH Zurich
Supporting Units: Nanjing Pukou Cultural and Tourism Development Group Co., Ltd., Nanjing Xiangtang Construction and Development Co., Ltd.
Area: approx. 750 m2
Design Period: 2024.6.24-7.14
Construction Period: 2024.7.15-7.19
Exhibition Period: 2024.7.19-7.26