In the mountain valleys of China’s Fujian Province, thousands of large, rammed earth fortresses lay abandoned. Once used for both defense and collective housing, the tulou typology is an integral part of the region’s cultural heritage, with 46 of them being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Despite this, the rural communities surrounding them have struggled to find new roles and purposes for these buildings. Going beyond the need for conservation, architect Xu Tiantian of DnA_Design and Architecture set out to develop and adapt this heritage to reintroduce it into community life. The Fujian Tulou | Adaptive Reuse project recently won the Gold Prize of Holcim Awards 2023 for Asia-Pacific, recognized for creating “an exemplary model for building conservation initiatives.” In a video interview for ArchDaily, Xu Tiantian discusses the principles that underpin this initiative and the potential outcomes of adaptive reuse in rural communities.
Xu Tiantian: The Latest Architecture and News
Restoring a Symbol of Collective Memory: Holcim Award Winner Xu Tiantian Discusses the Impact of Adaptive Reuse
The Obel Award Announces Theme for its 6th Cycle, the 2024 Edition
![The Obel Award Announces Theme for its 6th Cycle, the 2024 Edition - Featured Image](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/6660/0fd5/3265/2807/3348/ff5e/medium_jpg/the-obel-award-announces-theme-for-its-5th-cycle-the-2024-edition_1.jpg?1717571546)
The Obel Award is an international prize for architectural achievement presented annually by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation. Each year, the jury selects a specific theme and grants an award to a promising solution. For the 2024 edition, the prize that honors architectural contributions that positively impact both people and the planet will be focused on “Architecture With”.
Previous emphasis included Adaptations, Emissions, Cities, Mending, and Well-being. In 2023, the fifth cycle recognized ‘Living Breakwaters’ in New York, a green infrastructure project off the shore of Staten Island, by SCAPE Landscape Architecture and its founder Kate Orff. In 2022, the Obel was awarded to Seratech, a carbon-neutral concrete solution, in 2021, the concept of the 15-minute city received the prize for its value in creating sustainable and people-centric urban environments, and in 2020, Studio Anna Heringer was acknowledged for Anandaloy, in Bangladesh, an unconventional, multifunctional building that hosts a therapy center for people with disabilities on the ground floor and a textile studio on the top floor producing fair fashion and art. Finally, in its first edition, fixated on well-being, the Obel Award was granted to the Art Biotop Water Garden project in Tochigi, Japan, by Junya Ishigami & Associates.
Days of ORIS 2024: Mary Anderson, Xu Tiantian and Alejandro Aravena
![Days of ORIS 2024: Mary Anderson, Xu Tiantian and Alejandro Aravena - Featured Image](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/65c1/3209/e9d2/f900/01aa/af21/newsletter/Oris_Day_2024.jpg?1707160079)
Since 2001, Days of Oris has brought together some of the world's most interesting global architects, in Zagreb, Croatia. This year three global practices bring unique perspective from diverse geographies: Mary Anderson from Assemble (UK), a community oriented practice that does not only focus on the building, but rather on the social impact of their projects; Xu Tiantian from DnA Design and Architecture (China), with a focus on rural China and its communities, delivering an architecture with a strong identity; and Pritzker laureate Alejandro Aravena, whose practice ELEMENTAL (Chile) has brought new perspectives to social housing and public projects across the globe, focusing on the right answer that architecture should respond to.
The Latest Exhibition at Aedes Showcases the Transformation of Stone Quarries into Cultural Infrastructure
![The Latest Exhibition at Aedes Showcases the Transformation of Stone Quarries into Cultural Infrastructure - Featured Image](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/6236/113b/24a2/8301/69ea/7ba5/newsletter/quarry-number-8-finished-photo-wang-ziling-c-dna-design-and-architecture-7.jpg?1647710533)
Aedes Architecture Forum recently inaugurated the "Jinyun Quarries – The Quarry as Stage" exhibition, which showcases the transformation of abandoned stone quarries in the Zhejiang Province, China, into a platform for cultural and social activities. Beijing architect Xu Tiantian and the team of DnA_Design and Architecture were tasked with developing a new public infrastructure inside nine of the mines in Jinyun County, thus opening up new economic perspectives for the local people. Running until May 5th, the exhibition highlights the extraordinary spatiality of the stone quarries while communicating the complexity of the structures through a series of models, plans and photographs of the interventions.
“Architecture Should be Able to Connect the Past and the Future”: In Conversation with Xu Tiantian
![“Architecture Should be Able to Connect the Past and the Future”: In Conversation with Xu Tiantian - Featured Image](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5c9e/1d4e/284d/d1aa/5100/00e1/newsletter/573A1434.jpg?1553866050)
It is the end of May 2016, Alejandro Aravena’s “Reporting from the Front” Biennale is about to kick off the next day and I just landed at Venice airport. Vaporetto waterbuses are no longer running at this late hour, so I am heading for a water taxi, thinking that it will cost me a bundle to get to the city. But maybe not! I see a lonely figure, “Are you going to Venice? Would you like to share a taxi?” A young Chinese woman agrees without hesitation. As soon as the boat leaves I keep pressing my luck, “Are you an architect, by any chance?” Yes! The next hour flew unnoticed, as we discussed our discipline and common friends. Two years passed, and I am back to Venice Biennale. At the opening of the Chinese Pavilion, I am hopping from conversation to conversation until I am introduced to Xu Tiantian, “China’s most promising female architect.” We looked at each other and said in unison, “The taxi girl/guy!” We finally exchanged contacts and on my next trip to Beijing we met at Xu’s DnA Design and Architecture studio. What follows, after a brief introduction, is an excerpt from that conversation.
12 Award-Winning Women in Architecture From the Past 12 Months
![12 Award-Winning Women in Architecture From the Past 12 Months - Featured Image](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5c81/988a/284d/d1ce/f000/0929/newsletter/FranciscoNogueiraAL_A-MAAT40023.jpg?1551997058)
In the 12 months since 2018 International Women’s Day, we have seen many female architects come to fore of the design discourse. From Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell’s curation of the 2018 Venice Biennale to Frida Escobedo's celebrated design for the Serpentine Pavilion, the architectural newsfeeds from the past twelve months have played host to many signs of change in a traditionally male-dominated profession.
ArchDaily has also been busy over the past year, publishing stories such as twelve prominent women in architectural photography, seven influential women of the Bauhaus, and the women redefining success in architecture. Beyond news and editorials, the honorary lists and award ceremonies of prominent architectural institutions from around the world have also paid tribute to some of the world’s leading and emerging female architects.
Sheila O’Donnell and Xu Tiantian Win 2019 Women in Architecture Awards
![Sheila O’Donnell and Xu Tiantian Win 2019 Women in Architecture Awards - Featured Image](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5c78/a9c4/284d/d14b/1100/00a8/newsletter/BeFunky-collage_(1).jpg?1551411640)
For this year's Women in Architecture Awards, The Architectural Review and the Architects’ Journal have selected Sheila O’Donnell as Architect of the Year and Xu Tiantian to win the Moira Gemill Prize for Emerging Architecture in the 2019 Women in Architecture awards. The Architect of the Year award recognizes excellence in design specifically in the context of a recently completed project and the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture is awarded to women designers under the age of 45 who show design excellence indicative of a bright future.
Can Architecture Save China’s Rural Villages? DnA’s Xu Tiantian Thinks So
![Can Architecture Save China’s Rural Villages? DnA’s Xu Tiantian Thinks So - Arch Daily Interviews](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5ad8/cea7/f197/ccd9/a300/0464/newsletter/Bamboo_Pavilion__Damishan_Area__Photo_Zhou_Ruogu_(4).jpg?1524158077)
Travel seven hours by car in a Southwest direction from Shanghai and you will arrive in Songyang County. The name is unfamiliar to many Chinese people, and even more foreign to those living abroad. The county consists of about 400 villages, from Shicang to Damushan.
Here, undulating lush green terraces hug the sides of Songyin river valley, itself the one serpentine movement uniting the lands. Follow the river and you will see: here, a Brown Sugar Factory; there, a Bamboo Theatre; and on the other side, a stone Hakka Museum built recently but laid by methods so old, even the town masons had to learn these ways for the first time, as if they were modern methods, as if they were revolutionary.
![Can Architecture Save China’s Rural Villages? DnA’s Xu Tiantian Thinks So - Arch Daily Interviews](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5ad8/cea7/f197/ccd9/a300/0464/newsletter/Bamboo_Pavilion__Damishan_Area__Photo_Zhou_Ruogu_(4).jpg?1524158077)
And maybe they are. Songyang County, otherwise known as the “Last Hidden Land in Jiangnan,” may look like a traditional Chinese painting with craggy rock faces, rice fields and tea plantations, but it has also become a model example of rural renaissance. Beijing architect Xu Tiantian, of the firm DnA_Design and Architecture, has spent years surveying the villages of Songyang, talking to local County officials and residents, and coming up with what she calls “architectural acupunctures.”