A BOUNTIFUL HARVEST
21 Oct 2019
A temporary recyclable exhibition space that minimises harm to the historic local architecture has been created in Shichengzi Village for the 2019 Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival.
THE ORIGIN
Shichengzi Village in Hebei Province, China, is the key venue for the 2019 Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival in Hebei province. Temporary gallery facilities were needed to hold the exhibition in addition to a temporary media interview and guest rest centre, which were designed in an idle farmhouse. The original exhibition was arranged on the side of the main road of the village but it was discovered that the exhibitions would not be displayed well.
Fuyingbin Studio proposed combining the exhibition of the alleyways inside the village, which not only has a relatively sophisticated exhibition space but also attracts tourists to the village and fully perceives its distinctive rural space. The media centre is located in an indolent farmer's house with local characteristics, which is relatively quiet and has been briefly renovated for temporary rest and meeting. The facilities will be dismantled after the festival, thus the impact on the environment of the village could be minimised.
MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION
Due to the limitation of time and money, the exhibition corridors needed to be created quickly at minimal cost, with the ability to be recycled. As the village is located in the remote mountain area, the material could hardly be purchased from the county and thus there was a very narrow material palette left to work with. The architects discovered the scaffold was the best and the only option to meet the above requires at the same time.
Scaffold is the most typical reusable material, with standardised components, various forms and extremely convenient construction process. According to the existing steel pipe specifications from the scaffold leasing station, Fuyingbin Studio designed a module system for the scaffold gallery, which can be built quickly according to the village public space without any impact on the existing environment. Common safety mesh was chosen, which is often used together with the scaffold as sunshade and decoration materials of the installation.
The safety mesh has a gorgeous colour palette and its material has a great range of specification. Fuyingbin Studio chose the most common polyester federated mesh, enabling customised colour and light transparent texture, which can achieve a unique hazy aesthetic effect when combined with a scaffold exhibits corridor. The safety mesh has a fixed size for the finished product; thus, the scaffold installation was modified to fit the mesh. On the construction site, nylon plastic binding belt was utilized to complete the connection between the safety mesh and the scaffold, realising the fast installation process.
The whole exhibits corridor installation was completed in just less than two days. This temporary exhibit installation made by scaffolds painted orange with orange safety mesh is like an orange ribbon, softly spreading through the village. The scaffold has become the art piece itself – its original coarse materiality was mildewed with the vivid hazy safety mesh to set off the contrast.
In addition to scaffolds and safety mesh, the media centre also employed an OSB board to serve as a temporary paving material for the ground floor. OSB board has high intensity and low price, with downy and plain texture, which can be paved on-site after very simple woodwork. The whole compound was quickly set up in a week.
ALLEYWAY EXHIBITS CORRIDOR
The alleyway gallery adds a layer of hazy and illusory skin to the roadway. The gate of the farmhouse on the alley facade was originally a node dividing the indoors and out. What used to be a traffic space has been transformed into a communal space where locals, farmers and tourists stop by. The gallery appears in different sections in the roadway, sometimes hidden and sometimes undulating, where the sunshade through the orange mesh echoes the scattered roofs of the folk houses.
THE MILL GALLERY
A mill in the lane of the village has been abandoned for many years. This mill was originally the most intimate place in the daily life of Shichengzizi villagers. With the change of local economy structure and production mode, the mill was not so busy as before. Fuyingbin Studio planned a small photo and image exhibition, titled Primitive Nature in Spectacle Current. The exterior scaffolding extends through the doors and windows inside of the mill. The orange steel frame system interweaves with the old mill buildings, showing the images of the life of the villagers at present. The new and the old collide directly with each other in a natural and harmonious way.
In the gallery space outside the mill, Fuyingbin Studio planned a children's exhibition, called Rock is Sweet. Rural revitalisation is not just the change of industry and income, but also should bring more care to rural children. Similarly, the harvest festival should not only be a performance for adults but also set aside a stage for children in the countryside. The revitalisation of the countryside is ultimately the revitalisation of people, and children represent the future of the countryside.
Fuyingbin Studio contacted the village primary school, which has only 28 students, and took a series of photos of local children. it collected the paintings of each student and displayed them in the gallery. The childish brushwork of the children became the most beautiful art in the gallery of the harvest festival.
THE MEDIA CENTRE
The media centre is an old house with distinctive features in the village. The construction of the temporary media centre not only needs to meet the interview demand during the harvest festival, but also provides a window for a large number of courtyards in the village to display and promote to the outside world through the display of this courtyard, so as to seek the possibility for the old courtyard to regain its vitality. As it is a temporary facility, it needs to be completely dismantled after the festival without any damage to the old courtyard.
In the courtyard, a huge canopy is erected with scaffolding, which provides temporary shelter and activity space. The yellow safety mesh on the top floor is interwoven with the blue sky, while the scaffolding and hawthorn trees in the yard are interspersed, making the sunlight in the yard become psychedelic and changeable. The courtyard floor is covered with warm OSB boards that completely remould the courtyard in a warm and bright tone. The warm OSB boards are like wooden carpets extending from the courtyard to the interior.
The old courtyards, which have long been slept inside the remote mountain, declared their own value with this kind of almost art way of intervention and insertion of new programs.
IMPACT
Exhibits corridor and the construction of the compound at a low cost and fast speed cost less than ten thousand yuan. Despite that the implementation of scaffolds lead by professional workers, all other jobs are done by villagers. Safety mesh and panel installed with nylon tie belt, that ordinary villagers without experience can install fast and conveniently.
The abandoned mill has been restored to life, and the old stone mill has been pushed by visitors again. History and future are interwoven in the new mill gallery space. After the festival, all the constructions are detachable and recyclable. Nothing is left. The alleys are still quiet and the stones are still warm.
Via ArchDaily | Image © Yingbin Fumedia