Location: Hunan Province, China.

Architect: Condition Lab – School of Architecture CUHK & UAL Studio – School of Architecture and Urban Planning GZU.

The Gaobu Book House is a project aimed at preserving the cultural heritage of the Dong minority community in China. The village is facing the challenge of “village hollowing” due to urban migration, which is threatening the community’s identity. The project proposes a small children’s library that allows children to learn and have fun at the same time. The design generates an “active” architecture that allows children to engage and absorb knowledge through playing. The traditional Dong house “Ganlan” is used as the creative starting point, where local timber is used for the framing and the timber frame is adapted and reconfigured to accommodate different programmatic and spatial configurations. The library becomes a dynamic circulation and programmatic vessel for villages to interact. The idea is that while children are playing, they can also stop and read books or listen to a story, making reading fun. The building becomes a dynamic vessel for villagers to interact with rather than a static object building devoid of life.

The project aims to restore dignity and induce development in the village by adjusting existing building typologies, which is a notion that has always resonated within Dong culture. The library offers an educational incubator, a house for children to learn through playing. The 200m² timber 2 story structure revolves around a central stair that acts both as a means of circulation and identity of the building. The ground floor is conceived as a covered public open space for public gatherings and local exhibitions, while each wall of the above house is dedicated to a specific educational theme. The internal spaces become rooms where people can engage in classes and public events while the stairs act as a reading area. The project could inspire other neighboring villages to introduce similar programs and launch a network of book centers. At a time when the digital world seems to have embraced all facets of contemporary society, books offer the children of Gaobu a means to disconnect and dream about their future. The project is a unique approach to preserving cultural heritage and inducing development in rural areas.

Photo credit: Xu Liang Leon.