- Area: 6 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Ziye Huang, Yuchen Xing
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Lead Architect: Yuchen Xing
Text description provided by the architects. The Mobile Working Cabin was completed in the midsummer of 2021. It is a prefabricated multi-functional space product designed by the members of the Songxi detachment of Rural Revitalization Camp, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, and jointly built by the detachment members, factory specialists, and local villagers in the Songxi Printmaking Summer Camp in Nanping City, Fujian Province. It is the first complete architectural work designed, followed up, and built on site by students since the sixth phase of the Rural Revitalization Camp - this will be a new starting point.
The main body of the cabin is made of industrialized glued laminated bamboos with both wearability and ecology, which is formed by the logic of "frame and wall". The bamboo members (columns, beams, joists) of the main frame are prefabricated in the factory, and holes are reserved. The corresponding steel members and bolts are used to install and fix them on the site. The whole construction is very simple, with just a wrench and your own hands, untrained villagers and children can participate in the construction process.
As a mobile, adaptable, and extendible public space device, the design and production of the working cabin follow the principle of customization. Based on the unchanged main frame structure, it provides users with different kinds of functional wall options. The main materials of the wall are sunlight board and bamboo board, and each wall has different degrees of activity (fixed, semi-open, fully unfolded) according to its function settings. Doors, windows, exhibition stands lockers, and folding furniture can also be combined according to actual needs to obtain the final products.
The working cabin was built in an abandoned primary school in Xiangxi village, Songxi County. It is not only a place for the villagers to rest and children to play but also a window for the dissemination of arts and culture. It undertakes temple fairs related to Songxi printmaking, involving exhibition, sale, work, viewing, and other functions. Therefore, the final product is composed of one "selling wall", one "experience wall" and two "display walls". This is the first working cabin we built. Its main task this time is to act as a container for printmaking art and cultural activities in the abandoned primary school. Next time, it will appear in other villages, witnessing new possibilities.
