Located along the Chishui River in northern Guizhou, Shidada is a mountain settlement embedded in more than two thousand years of Chishui’s history. The river, salt trade, wharves, massive rocks, and steep terrain shaped its distinctive fabric of stone lanes, tiled roofs, timber frames, courtyards, shops, and markets.

When West-line Studio began work in 2013, much of the settlement had been demolished or severely damaged, yet its original lanes, historic courtyards, traditional dwellings, and layered historical traces remained.

Rather than reconstructing an image of the past, the design sought to preserve and continue Shidada’s distinctive structure of place: Ring Settlement + Nine Courtyards / Eight Ritual Sites + Branching Stone Alleys. Historical fragments from different periods and contemporary functions were carefully woven into this structure. Through repair, adaptation, and stitching together what remained, the project sought to reconcile the basic forms of traditional life with the strong intervention of contemporary society—allowing history to be rewoven into everyday life rather than preserved merely as a relic.

The “nine courtyards” accommodate different social functions and forms of daily life; the “eight ritual sites” preserve places of worship and prayer, including sites where boatmen once prayed before hauling boats along the Chishui River. Together, they form Shidada’s distinctive sense of place while allowing local memory and everyday social life to continue.

Surviving architectural fragments were documented, preserved, and reused, becoming part of new scenes of everyday life.

Completed in 2023 after nearly a decade of research, surveying, and construction, the project renews a layered historical structure while improving contemporary living conditions, continuing the cultural roots accumulated through more than two thousand years of Chishui’s history.