Local is More than a Beautiful Story

Chetian Cultural Center occupies an abandoned, open site of approximately five mu, south of the winding Sancha River in the middle of Chetian Village, Gui'an New Area, Guizhou. It is a rare expanse of open, rocky ground in this mountain village. ‘Openness’, the site's distinctive attribute, is a fundamental quality that the design must preserve. The site also lies at the angled junction of three layered parallel orders on the hillsides: one steps down from south to north, another descends progressively from northwest to southeast, and a third slides in parallel from southwest to northeast. Accordingly, the cultural centre is divided into two principal components—an open system of exterior spaces and an inward-looking building volume tucked into one corner—to carry through the site's parallel order and openness.

车田村文化中心坐落在贵州省贵安新区车田村中部蜿蜒三岔河的南部，约五亩被荒弃的空旷用地上，是这个山地村落中极为难得的石质开阔地。“空旷”这个特有的场地属性是设计发展中必须确保的基本品质；其次，此开阔地位于由南向北逐层退台跌落的平行关系、由西北向东南渐次下吊的平行关系，以及由西南平行滑向东北的三组不同朝向的层叠的山地平行秩序呈角度的交接处，据此将文化中心分解为开阔的外部空间体系与偏安一隅的内收的建筑实体两个主要部分，以贯彻场地的平行秩序与空旷特征。

Three systems each perform their own role: 40 cm-thick stone walls; coloured transparent laminated glass set into roofs and standing within walls; and black metal display panels and suspended ceilings. The enclosed stone spaces, particular lighting conditions and the striking sound of metal against stone together create a vivid sense of place. These are fragments of the indigenous, the crafted, the industrial and of light; through tectonic means they convey the intention of the place. The stone building's plan has two parts: parallel functional volumes and courtyards in the centre, and a ring of semi-open public corridors around the outside. The spatial prototype for this is the combination of Chetian's stepped lanes and the spaces outside people's doors where neighbours gather to chat. Together with the three material systems, this spatial configuration effectively produces a diverse group of indoor places for public life.

40cm 厚的石头墙系统、置于屋面与立于墙体的彩色透明夹胶玻璃系统，与黑色金属的展示板与吊顶系统三个系统各司其职，围合的石头空间、特殊的光环境、金属对石头的激打声一起制造着鲜活的场所感，这些是原生的、工匠的、工业化的、光的断片，它们在以建构的方式传达着场所的意志。石头房子的平面布局由两部分组成，中部为平行的功能体与院落：外圈为一环半开放的公共走廊，其空间原型为车田村拾级而上的巷道+各家门前的“摆龙门阵”的空间的组合，这一空间体配合三个材料系统，有效地生产出多样化的室内公共空间场所群。

Chetian Cultural Center reconstructs a social and material structure combining moral instruction through belief, secular public life and the transmission of skills. This structure is translated into a composition of the stone building at the southwest corner, Jiulong Slope, a waterwheel and channel, an open-air stage and an open yard. Built entirely of stone, the building with its raised, folded roof profile recreates the village's monumentality through its substantial stone silhouette. It also provides a place for villagers to communicate publicly, learn about culture and acquire basic working skills. Its layered, stone-lane-like circulation loop and ceremonial exhibition hall convey history in an affecting way. The riverside waterwheel and the winding channel raised into the air subtly recall Chetian's former means of production. The open-air stone stage seems to seek, through classic local Miao operas, a point of return to the pleasure of entertaining oneself. The open square and groups of stone stools placed upon it create settings for diverse public activities. Together these nurture a harmonious social condition informed by humanistic cultivation, understanding of history and the world, and moral education. This is an effort to recreate the dream of a rural society in harmony with human nature.

车田村文化中心再建了一种信仰教化＋世俗公共性+技艺传播的社会物质性结构，这一结构具体由西南角的石头房、九龙坡、水车水渠、露天戏台与空坝子的组合转译完成。通体石头垒砌的举折的石头房以其厚重的石头背影再造着村落的纪念性，更是村民公共交流、文化学习、掌握基本工作技能的场所。其层层叠叠的石巷般的环道与仪式性展厅则动容地传承着历史，那临河的水车，与被举在半空的曲折的水渠组合则隐约地再现着车田村曾经的生产手段。而那露天的石戏台似乎要以那些当地经典的苗戏为媒介，找寻自娱自乐的回味点。空旷的广场坝子与置于其上的石墩组则制造着多样性的公共生活的发生地。这些共同孕育着一种有人文修养的、知古明事的、教化人心的和谐社会的状态，这是再造人性和谐的乡土社会梦想的努力。

Chetian Village Tourist Reception Center stands in Chetian Village in the national-level Gui'an New Area in central Guizhou. Chetian is a Miao mountain settlement built of stone, arranged in parallel terraces along open ground and a river. Its spatial structure is a typical model of parallel unit addition without a hierarchy of principal and subordinate elements. Although the village's overall formation follows a common parallel organisation, it has particular features: basic rectangular units spontaneously join in series to grow into strip-like groups; these strips can reconstitute space through turns and enclosures; and several adjacent strips interlock at their ends. Together these form a distinctive site order of isomorphic units, parallel rows and interlocking nodes.

车田村游客接待中心位于贵州省中部贵安国家级开发新区的车田村内。车田村是一个苗族山地石头村落，沿开阔地与河流平行退台布局。该村的空间结构是典型的无主次等级的单元平行复加模式，车田村的整体成形方式虽然是常见的平行组织方式，其所特有的矩形基本单元体的自发串联，生长成条形单元组的现象；条形单元组所具备的通过转折、环绕等方式自我再构空间的能力，以及相邻的若干条形单元组在端部相互咬合的特点，使其形成了特殊的单元同构＋列平行＋咬合节点场地秩序。

Chetian lies in the karst landscape of central Guizhou's mild climatic zone. Its old houses are mainly stone masonry: repeated construction with heavy elements. Their formal composition consists of rows of thick enclosing walls and pitched stone-slab roofs on timber frames. Seen from outside, the layered stone walls are the most distinctive feature, while roofs seem concealed between them. Seen from inside, the buildings are characterised by load-bearing stone and an enclosed, inward orientation. Small windows frame localised views, while rooflights admit light into the deeper parts of the houses.

车田村地属黔中温和带的喀斯特地貌区，其老房子基本以石头砌筑为主，系厚重元素的重复砌筑形态，形式组合表现为：排排的厚墙围合+木构架石片坡面。从外部观察：层层叠叠的石头墙最具特征，屋面则似乎隐藏在墙与墙间；从内部观察：石头承重，封闭内向系其特征，局部点窗透景，屋子深处则以屋面引亮子透光。

The design of Chetian Village Tourist Reception Center therefore attempts to introduce the site order of isomorphic units, parallel rows and interlocking nodes as its mechanism of spatial generation. The building is divided into three parallel strips with different spatial types and construction methods, progressing from the square facing the road junction towards the hill behind. This both continues Chetian's typical parallel means of control and makes effective use of parallel strips' flexibility in addressing an irregular site. All three strips employ L-shaped turns as their isomorphic spatial method. Strip one faces the triangular square in front of the road junction. Its spatial type is the ‘courtyard’: repeated L-shaped turns complete an enclosure. Built in ordinary brick masonry and rendered entirely white, it forms a ceremonial entrance space with the atmosphere of an original stone lane. Strip two occupies the widest part of the site. Its spatial type is the ‘lane’. After an L-shaped stretching and twisting that makes full use of the terrain, it turns at its northern end to enclose a small functional group containing men's and women's toilets. Built throughout with Chetian's traditional stone masonry and dry-pointing technique, it evokes the original setting of a winding stone lane leading into seclusion. Strip three has the largest volume. Its spatial type is the ‘hall’. Its basic construction combines a conventional frame, infill walls and local stone facing. It contains the visitor centre's principal functions and a texture that invites recollection. Inside, functions are likewise arranged as units forming strips and strips running in parallel. At its southern end, close to strips one and two, a deliberate, abrupt L-shaped turn interlocks all three into a whole. This modifies the indistinct boundaries of the parallel-control model by giving it closure through a particular site structure. Formally, the three strips emphasise the ‘enclosing walls + rows of walls’ prototype of Chetian's old houses, while consciously transforming an equal relationship between walls into an ordered hierarchy. This organisation—each strip first developing its own L-shaped isomorphism and then being added in parallel—retains relative independence between rows while achieving the homogeneity and integrity of parallel combination. It expresses a vernacular way of controlling space in which repetition and difference coexist. In summary, Chetian Village Tourist Reception Center is the outcome of a working method combining site order, formal prototype and basic construction. 1. Studying site order attempts to translate the accumulated experience of controlling complex terrain over the long history of rural society into a basic framework for spatial generation, a framework imbued with traditional habits of life. 2. Manipulating formal prototypes and controlling their transformation seeks to preserve visual identity and basic stability, achieving a sense of familiar origins. 3. Technology is the material expression of the lived world. Whatever its form—already present, emerging or yet to emerge—it rests on the lived world of its particular time and place as its foundation and source.

由此在车田村游客接待中心的设计中尝试导入这种单元同构+列平行+咬合节点的场地秩序作为空间生成机制：将建筑划分为从面向道路交叉口的广场向后山递进的三列不同空间类型与建造方式的平行条带，这样的处理既承续了车田村典型的平行控制方式，也有效地利用了平行条带可灵活处理不规则场地的特点。此三列平行带均采用了 “L”形转折的空间同构方式。直面交叉口前三角广场的条带一，空间类别为“院”，通过多次“L”形折转完成院落围合，采用普通的砖砌体建造方式，通体白色粉刷，是具有仪式意义石巷原境味的入口空间；条带二地处基地中最宽的地段，空间类别为“巷”，在充分利用地形进行“L”形拉伸扭转之后，在北端绕出一方小小的含男女洗手间的功能组，通体运用车田村传统的石头砌筑＋干抹工艺，蕴含了曲径通幽的石巷原境；条带三体量最大，空间类别为“堂”，基本建造方式为常态的框架结构 +填充墙+外墙当地石材敷面，系带有回味质感的游客接待中心主功能区，内部亦遵循单元体成条，条组平行的方式进行功能分区，且在靠近条带一与条带二的南侧端头刻意做了个“L”形的突然转折，由此将三个条带咬合成一个整体，将平行控制模式无精确边沿界限的状态调整为以某种特定的场地结构作为收束。三列条带在形式处理上基本上突出了车田村老房子“墙围合+墙排排”的形式原型，只是将墙与墙的平等关系有意识地转化为有秩序的等级关系。总之，这种各单元条带各自“L”形同构后再平行复加的组织模式既保持了列与列间相对的独立性，亦获取了平行组合所具有的勻质性与整体性，由此透射出重复性与差异性共存的乡土空间控制思维。总之，车田村游客接待中心系场地秩序+形式原型＋基本建造的工作方式投射的结果：1.研究场地秩序是试图将漫长乡土社会中日积月累的处理复杂地形的场地控制经验转换为空间生发的基本控制骨架，这骨架浸透着传统生活惯性的烙印；2.企图通过对形式原型的操作与变形控制，保持形象的身份认同与基本稳定，达成某种似曾相识的渊源感；3.技术是生活世界的物象化，不管什么样的技术，已经在此的、正在生成的或将要生成的都奠基于当时当地的生活世界这一基础和源泉之上。

Research for the Bailong Folk Culture Complex began in 2003, and construction was completed in April 2007. It stands in Bailong Village, Shiban Town, Huaxi District, Guiyang, Guizhou, a typical Miao mountain village with a history of several hundred years. The entire village is built of stone and has a complete order of spatial control. Its overall system consists of two intersecting sets of concentric circles around adjacent hilltops. One belongs to the Liu clan and the other to the Wang clan; the ratio of Liu to Wang households is 2:3. Their intersection lies in the valley between the hills, where Liu and Wang households mix, along with a few families of other surnames. Under contemporary conditions, this formerly peripheral area has become the village centre. Each set of concentric circles is generated through a logic of self-similar expansion from ‘unit’ to ‘unit group’ to ‘unit cluster’. Specifically, parents' houses and those of their sons and daughters-in-law, alternating through successive generations, enclose a courtyard to form a basic family unit. Several family units surround a slightly larger open yard to form a group of directly related families. Several such groups, responding to the terrain, surround an approximately elliptical yard to form a cluster of extended kin. These clusters ultimately surround the hilltop, fulfilling rituals of ancestral and mountain worship and establishing a complete spatial system of clan organisation. Bailong thus repeatedly employs the enclosing configuration of its basic units, expanding through self-similarity into a progressively ranked relationship of spatial control. This is a model of hierarchical isomorphism, with the enclosed courtyard as its basic framework. Essentially, it is a variation on the traditional model of unit addition. Bailong also contains a particular geographical order acting upon bodily perception. Under the influence of places associated with legends and views of the countryside, distinct sites of spatial perception are distributed in an ordered way: a lane of ‘listening’ at the east, one of ‘touch’ at the south, one of ‘light’ at the west and one of ‘stone forest’ at the north. By combining specially treated spaces with a branching system of paths, this particular geographical structure effectively activates the body's perceptual system. In short, Bailong establishes a stable yet active spatial condition through two concurrent orders of spatial control: hierarchical isomorphism derived from kinship and a geographical structure that regulates bodily perception.

2003 年起调查，2007年4月竣工的摆陇民俗综合体，位于贵州省贵阳市花溪区石板镇摆陇村，这是一个有着几百年历史的地处山区的典型的苗族村落，整个村落均由石头砌筑，有着完善的空间控制秩序：村落的总体控制系统由两个分别环绕两座相邻山头的同心圆交错而成，一个同心圆为刘姓家族，一个同心圆为王姓家族，刘王家族户数比为2：3，同心圆的交错区为山头与山头间的谷底区域，刘王两姓人家在此杂居，也有零星外姓人家居于此，在当代条件下，这个原来的边缘区已转换为该村落的中心区。每个同心圆均遵循一种“单元”→“单元”组→“单元”群的自相似扩展逻辑的生成，具体表现为：一个家庭的父母住房与儿子儿媳住房世袭交替地围合着一方院坝组成一个基本的家庭单元；若干户家庭单元又围绕一稍大的空坝子组成一个直系亲属单元组；若干此类单元组又因地制宜地环绕一个类椭圆形的大坝子组成一个支系亲戚单元群；这些单元群最终包围山头，完成某种祭祀祖宗、祭祀山岳的仪式性，成就一个完整的宗族体系空间系统。由此可见，摆陇村是通过多次重复基本单元的围合性组合架构，自相似扩展，形成一种空间上呈等级递增的控制关系，是层级同构模式，其基本的同构骨架是院落围合，层级同构模式本质上系传统的单元复加模式的变体。摆陇村还潜藏一种作用于身体感知的特殊的地缘秩序，由于受传说地与田野风景的影响，形成了东端一“听”之巷，南头一“触摸”之巷，西侧一“光”之巷，北地一“石林”之巷等有序分布的空间感知地，这种特殊的地缘结构通过将特别处理的空间与分叉路径体系的结合，有效地激活着身体的知觉系统。总之，摆陇村落是通过源于血缘系统的层级同构与调节身体感知状态的地缘结构这两个双重空间控制秩序来建立一种稳定而活性的空间存在状态。

The Bailong Folk Culture Complex occupies one side of an open space where the two hills meet, and therefore naturally participates in the village's overall order of spatial control. Its programme can be divided into everyday functions—the village committee, library, clinic, activity room and meeting room—and commemorative functions, comprising exhibitions of history and traditional crafts. Everyday functional volumes enclose a square courtyard to form a first-level isomorphic group. This group and the commemorative volume then surround an elliptical courtyard to form a second level. Through these two levels, the complex participates in the village's higher-level isomorphism. The square courtyard is deliberately made a stone court sensitive to the sound of rain; the elliptical court seeks to hold the sky and evoke Bailong's distinctive ‘Legend of the Nine Dragons’. These treated courtyards, together with coloured light in the exhibition hall, combine with branching paths to regulate bodily sensitivity…

据此，地处两山头街接处的一开敞空地一侧的摆陇民俗综合体也自然要加入到村落的整体空间控制秩序中；另根据民俗综合体的功能要求，可将功能划分为常态功能（含村委会、图书室、医务室、活动室及会议室）与纪念功能（历史与传统工艺展厅），将常态功能体围合一方形院落构成第一层级同构组，再将第一层级同构组与纪念功能体环绕一椭圆形院落构成第二层级同构，最终民俗综合体以两个层级同构的方式参与到村落更高级别的同构中。特意将方院处理为石院，并敏感雨声：椭院则意图留住天空，并使人联想起摆陇寨特有的“九陇的传说”，这些处理后的院子以及展厅内的有色光，一起同分岔的路径结合，达成对身体敏感性的调控…