Shaoliang Xie / LICC 2024 Winner

 

In an interview with LICC, Shaoliang Xie, Winner of the Non-Professional BUILD (Architecture) category, shares how he and his team preserved cultural heritage while incorporating modern architectural elements, and how they approached spatial planning to accommodate both exhibition areas and functional workshops.

 

 

 

The Fuyu Cultural Tourism Complex is situated in the core scenic area of Qianhu Miao Village. How did the surrounding landscape and cultural context influence your design approach?

Our project site is located in the core area of Qianhu Miao Village. The surrounding natural landscape and cultural context had a decisive influence on the design – the core proposition throughout the design process was how to seamlessly integrate the new building into the historical village fabric. The starting point of this thinking originated from the view outside the window of the guesthouse where we stayed during the site inspection (Figure 1).

When we opened the window, the panoramic view of the Miao Village unfolded like a scroll: the scattered villages were built along the mountain terrain, and a winding river flowed through the village, forming an organic whole with the natural landscape.We captured this artistic conception through pencil sketching (Figure 2) and discovered that the most unique feature of Miao architecture lies in its roof compositions. Different from the fixed forms of traditional Chinese architecture, their undulating shapes are both practical and rhythmic (Figure 3).

This observation was directly translated into design strategies: we selected traditional gray tiles and wooden cladding to harmonize with the village’s material palette to ensure unity in color and texture with the environment; the roof forms were modern reconstructions by extracting existing elements from the village, achieving a dialogue with the historical environment through volumetric fragmentation.

The building serves as a venue for showcasing traditional Miao handcrafts and includes workshops for heritage artisans. How did you balance preserving cultural heritage with incorporating modern architectural elements?

The key to balance lies in the dialectical unity of “structural modernity” and “spatial traditionality”:

Structural Foundation: The main structure adopts a reinforced concrete structure to meet modern functional and load-bearing requirements.

Spatial reinterpretation: The design incorporates the classic Miao  Meirenkao (‘beauty lean’)  exterior corridor (Figure 4), creating a semi-outdoor liminal space that continues traditional living scenes while offering visitors a place to rest and enjoy the view.

Material Narrative: The construction adopts a “one brick, two wood” method (brick wall covered on both sides with wooden panels). The exterior corridor columns are wrapped with wooden boards, imparting traditional texture onto a modern framework (Figure 5).

How did you approach spatial planning to accommodate both exhibition spaces and functional workshops?

Based on the commercial value along the street frontage, the ground floor is planned as retail shops specializing in Miao silverware, embroidery, batik, and other traditional crafts, while exhibition spaces and workshops are concentrated on the second floor. The circulation flow is connected by an exterior corridor surrounding the inner courtyard and outdoor staircases (Figures 6,Figures 7), with an elevator provided to ensure accessibility.This layout both guarantees commercial vitality and achieves a zoning for dynamic and static activities through vertical layering, ensuring the privacy of the workshop spaces and the openness of the exhibition areas.

What sustainable design strategies did you implement in the Fuyu Cultural Tourism Complex?

Our sustainability approach integrates environmental performance with cultural continuity through three key strategies:

Passive Design: The inner courtyard layout guides natural ventilation, while the veranda forms a sun-shading system to minimize energy use.

Modular Construction: The Miao ‘beauty lean’ veranda uses prefabricated components, shortening on-site construction time and facilitating later maintenance and replacement.

Contextual integration: The semi-outdoor liminal space of the exterior corridors enhances indoor-outdoor permeability (Figure 8), reducing reliance on mechanical lighting and ventilation.

The building is intended to facilitate hands-on experience centers for intangible cultural heritage activities. How did you design the space to encourage interactive learning and engagement with visitors?

In Qianhu Miao Village, many tourists wear Miao costumes for photography. Wearing traditional Miao costumes naturally involves pairing them with distinctive local accessories like silver ornaments, which serve as a gateway to understanding traditional crafts like Miao clothing, batik, and silverware.

In the project design, we established free public photography platforms in the mid-corridor area of the attic floor, accessible to visitors for photo-taking. These platforms, situated beneath dormer windows, offer framed views of the mountains and Miao village landscapes. As visitors make their way to the attic, they pass through the first and second-floor workshops, gaining insights into traditional craftsmanship along the way.

Collaboration within your design team must have been essential. Can you describe how the team worked together to bring this project to fruition?

We are a university workshop team with well-organized collaboration and division of labor. After completing on-site research, our students were capable of handling various aspects of the project. As the team leader, I was mainly responsible for conceptual sketches and overall coordination, while student members handled tasks such as architectural 3D modeling,  photorealistic renderings, CAD drafting and physical model fabrication.Of course, throughout the design process, we conducted multiple rounds of comparison and refinement of different proposals. After our team completed all design work, we collaborated with construction firms to deepen construction drawings and oversee on-site implementation. We maintained close communication with the construction team throughout the project to ensure its successful realization.

Winning the LICC award is a significant achievement. What does this recognition mean to your team, and how does it influence your approach to future architectural projects?

Winning the LICC award holds great significance for us and is a tremendous honor.  It not only inspires us to continue our in-depth exploration of traditional culture and rural development but also strengthens our belief in architecture as a cultural repository and catalyst for dialogue. Looking ahead, we will focus on rural revitalization and the inheritance of traditional culture, exploring how contemporary architecture can reinterpret regional identities and serve as a bridge between tradition and modernity.

The Fuyu Cultural Tourism Complex aims to foster a deeper understanding of Miao culture. How do you envision the building contributing to the preservation and promotion of local traditions?

The Fuyu Cultural and Tourism Complex is a comprehensive embodiment of traditional Miao culture. From the overall spatial layout and roof composition to the exterior corridor resting spaces and wooden panel facades, the design strategies are fully integrated with the historical village context (Figure 15 shows the overall harmony in an aerial view). 

In terms of architectural detailing, we adopted traditional elements such as the “beauty lean” (Meirenkao), hanging melon columns, and wave-patterned eave boards—each rich with profound Miao historical and cultural significance. Amidst the rapid advancement of rural development, we hope this project can serve as a model for the modern reinterpretation of traditional forms, offering a scalable methodology for the renovation and renewal of Miao village architecture, and helping to preserve the cultural and spatial identity of historic settlements.

The project was developed by a university team. How did this unique aspect influence the design process and the final outcome?

Compared to professional architectural firms, university teams place greater emphasis on the deep integration of cultural research and design. For example, we systematically studied more than ten Qing Dynasty Pictures of the Hundred Miao Tribes (Figure 16), analyzing Miao life scenes, clothing characteristics, and architectural forms from these historical documents to translate historical imagery into spatial language. This integrated “research-design” approach ensured that the architecture transcended mere formal imitation, achieving a contemporary interpretation of cultural spirit.

Looking ahead, what future developments or enhancements do you envision for the Fuyu Cultural Tourism Complex, and how do you plan to continue contributing to the evolution of cultural architecture?

We will collect user feedback on the project’s performance and optimize spatial details to enhance the quality of the experience. In the field of cultural architecture, we plan to deepen research on “rural revitalization and ancient village revitalization,” exploring innovative combinations of traditional crafts and modern materials.Through the university’s industry-academia-research platform,we aim to provide more practical cases for the inheritance of regional culture and the sustainable development of architecture.