Sino-Russian Friendship Tourism Village

Overview:

After the Lushan earthquake, that took place on April 20^th, 2013, in Ya’an County, Sichuan, China, the China/Russia Peaceful Unification Promotion Agency (CRPUPA) decided to support the building of a tourist village in the epicenter. This tourist village redeveloped the local economy by showcasing the traditional lifestyle that integrally reciprocates with the natural environment.

The aim of this project was to build a model for earthquake survivors in other areas of Sichuan, to emulate the local post-disaster reconstruction and recovery processes and ultimately to advance the quality of local inhabitants’ lives.

Design Elements:
After several fieldtrips and communication with local residents, my design team decided to involve the following elements into the new village’s architectural and landscape architectural planning and design:

• The characteristics of local existing post-disaster landscape
• The western Sichuan traditional residential housing features, including overall layout, architectural styles and colors, building materials and construction skills needed, etc.
• The traditional dynamic relationships between the built environment and the natural milieu
• Local tourist places of interest

Residential Housing:
The entire village contains three types of residential housing:

• Affordable Villa: This type of villa represented the local minority groups’ traditional architectural heritage. This traditional architectural culture was considered to be the most essential tourist attraction.
• Affordable-Agricultural House: Based on the local agricultural strength, this type of house was built around farmland and orchards, and could be used by the inhabitants to attract tourists.
• Affordable-Ecological Townhouse: Based on the local natural environment, this type of house was built according to the local ecological cycle. Each family has farmland, orchard and places to raise farm animals.