Bamboo Village
My project is to build a sustainable village for the young people who are lost in the ‘rat race’ of city life and provide them with a ‘utopia’ to claim their self-value and self-recognition. This bamboo village is transformed from a ‘lost’ village abandoned by the fishermen in the 1990s, which is 130km from the Chinese most population concentrated city of Shanghai, where most young people are tired and depressed from a stressful life.
For the design, I kept the brick walls of the old buildings, which are the most characteristic element of the site, covered with fabulous greenery. Then I implanted two new elements ‘bamboo canopy’ and ‘bamboo umbrella’ to create a new relationship between the old walls and new bamboo structure thus forming different sizes， and functions of spaces for young people, fishermen (who are the original residents in the old village) and immigrant family (the potential resident who will move here). Young people mainly live in the ‘bamboo canopy’ but share a kitchen, studio, cafe, meditation room, and sauna in the new structure between the old walls. Family modular flats are more private, but families still share nursery and sauna rooms. Located in the north of the site near the sea, in the middle of the residential area, a community center is designed for villagers’ daily social, study, and entertainment activities. The water market above the sea consists of ‘bamboo umbrellas’ for commercial and leisure activities among residents and continues people’s connection with the sea.
