Rural Moves – The Songyang Story

Xu Tiantian, DnA_Design and Architecture, Beijing

Rethinking strategies for rural development is a global pressing challenge. To stimulate the international discussion Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin is presenting a remarkable example from rural China.

Dynamic urbanization processes shape large parts of the world and China in particular. The young population migrates to the cities, whereas many elderly people and children remain in the rural areas. While in the German hinterland railway lines are shut down and the digital infrastructure is more than inadequate, the rural exodus in China is countered with new high-speed train lines and even the most remote mountain villages are being connected by broadband coverage. But also small-scale architecture creates positive future prospects for cultural, social and economic development. In the mountainous landscape of Songyang County, architect Xu Tiantian, in collaboration with the engaged provincial government and local people, developed thoughtful architectural acupunctures that generated a kind of new ’rural self-confidence’.

With Rural Moves—The Songyang Story, the Aedes Architecture Forum is opening a new chapter in the long and friendly relationship that it has been developing with China for nearly two decades as an internationally active cultural institution in Berlin. In the continuation of this reciprocal exchange, Aedes and ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory are now exploring China’s countryside.
The revitalization of rural regions has been neglected for a long time not only in China, but also in Europe and worldwide, and has consequently given rise to big socioeconomic and political challenges.