Duxing Yutang · Lecture 2

Since its foundation, West-Line Studio’s work has been summed up by the phrase “Up to Mountains & Down to Villages”. It describes both the studio’s sustained, hands-on way of working and its distinctive engagement with locality. Going “up to the mountains” means attending to site orders conditioned by geography; going “down to the villages” means engaging with the craft of place within vernacular subcultures. Their relationship produces the region, with vernacular life embedded in complex geographical situations.

West-Line’s investigations into geographically conditioned site control, the craft of making vernacular places, the renewal of collective life in settlements, and hybrid techniques combining vernacular and general construction offer a possible direction for contemporary architectural practice in western China.

The announcement identifies Haobo Wei as Principal Architect of West-Line Studio; Design Director of Guiyang Architectural Survey and Design Co., Ltd.; Chinese co-lead of the WB international studio; professor-level senior architect; recipient of a State Council special allowance; senior member of the Architectural Society of China; corresponding editorial board member of the Journal of Human Settlements in West China; and adjunct professor at Guizhou University.

2015 and 2012: gold awards in architecture and planning in the National Classic Human Settlements Architecture and Planning Design Competition.

2013: the sole gold award in the Rural Architecture category of the China Architectural Design Award; a silver award for Architectural Creation; and participation in the Shenzhen–Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture.

2012: an interview in the Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS on the joint practice of the WB international studio. 2010: the eighth Young Architect Award of the Architectural Society of China.

2007: participation in the Chongqing satellite exhibition of the Shenzhen–Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale and the exhibition “City · New Landscape”. 2006: two silver awards in the third China Weihai International Architectural Design Grand Prix.

2004: selection for RIBA’s DiverseCity travelling exhibition, with the work entering its permanent collection. 1997: fifth place in the US international competition AFFORDING HOUSING.

Wei has worked over many years to explore possible paths for architecture in western China within a plural social context. His practice brings a systematic method to investigation, analysis, design generation and spatial production. The “Up to Mountains & Down to Villages” series examines how contemporary vernacular architecture can exist under the combined influence of subcultural communities and socioeconomic forces.

His research concerns the craft of making vernacular places, geographically conditioned site control, general construction using vernacular materials, and the adaptation of general technical systems to local customs. The announcement lists the following writings; English titles below are editorial translations:

Up to Mountains & Down to Villages — The Generative Force of Vernacular Practice.

Experience — The Bailong Miao Village Cultural Complex in Huaxi, Guiyang.

The Intruder — Renovation and Renewal of Bailong Miao Village, Guizhou, within the New Socialist Countryside Programme.

Building through the Body — Unpacking the Design Method of the Bailong Miao Village Cultural Complex in Huaxi, Guiyang.

Feelings Awakened by the Scene — Producing Atmosphere through Materials.

Subtle Transformation — Chishui Exhibition Hall.

Site Order + Formal Archetype + General Construction — West-Line Studio’s Geographically Grounded Vernacular Techniques.

Living Technology — A Technical Paradigm Attentive to the Lifeworld.

Isomorphic Mechanisms of Vernacular Space — Kinship- and Geography-Based Spatial Control Systems in West-Line Studio’s Contemporary Vernacular Practice.

A Story of Stone — Chetian Village Cultural Centre in West-Line Studio’s Up to Mountains & Down to Villages Series.

The Future of the Vernacular — Architectural Practice in Guizhou through Geographical Constraints, Vernacular Models and Comparisons with Contemporary Plural Systems.

Carpenters and Stonemasons — The Craft of Making Vernacular Places in West-Line Studio’s Up to Mountains & Down to Villages Series.

Tuesday, 22 December 2015, 19:30–21:30. Hall 1, third floor, CCDI, Jinjia Technology Building, 19 Keji Zhong 2nd Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen. Admission was free and open to the public.

Organised by Duxing Yutang and CCDI Institute, with the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Shenzhen University as co-organiser. The announcement was published on 21 December 2015; the event date recorded here follows the poster’s explicit date of 22 December.