Song-Zhang-Kou Rural Housing

Press Kit

Unique Properties

Song-Zhang-Kou New Rural Housing is in Siyan, a relatively backward town in North Jiangsu Province. This community was merged by 3 former villages which were aggravated hollowed in the rapid rural-urban transformation background. As a demonstration of new rural housing development, Song-Zhang-Kou project is aiming to address two major issues of the current rural community in China: preserve the collective lifestyle for the elderly population and keep a small budget for improvement.
To meet the future tenants’ special needs of daily routine, our design team started with living locally and immersed in their daily life. Then convert their raw demands including large storage and courtyard needs, later life habits, bonded neighborhood interaction etc. into the integrated design. Thus, in the final construction outcome, housing orientation follows organic village context. Clustered housing allows public ‘village cores’ formed in variety sizes. Those 16 ‘village cores’ serve as community facilities, creating various possibilities of vital traditional street life for neighbors, typical private courtyard layout serves as enclosed space for veggie garden and sun-cure habit, extends indoor and outdoor interaction within family, forms a pleasant and relaxing living experience.
‘All aspects in Architecture Design matter’. We are proud to present this practice as it not only provides over 600 tenants an affordable and pleasant new home, but also considers improving the rural residents’ well being as well as the new rural community’s outlook.

Dimensions & Packaging

Site: 365,333 sq m (3,932,419 sq ft)
Building Area: 56,510 sq m (608,268 sq. ft)

Tags

Rural Housing, Affordable, traditional Chinese Architecture, rural-urban transformation, elderly population, collective lifestyle

Production Technology

Housing style refined from traditional Northern Jiangsu Architecture – layered white gable wall with dark roof tiles. However, the greatest challenge is to achieve a construction cost 70% lower than similar housing, while presenting the same level of aesthetic purpose. After considerable value engineering, traditional details get simplified; complicated decor replaced by contrast color-coated module; the beauty of hipped and gable roofing outline remained but type of roof tiles are standardized; door & window proportion calculated to support the best ventilation, natural lighting and views; solar panels added to all unit to eliminate the safety hazard of using tradition firewood stove.

Design Challenge

Preserve the collective lifestyle for the elderly population and keep a small budget for improvement.

Project Duration

Design Year: 2018
Built Year: 2020.05
Location: Siyang, Jiangsu, China

Operation Flow

To preserve the collective lifestyle for the major elderly population, our design team started with living locally and immersed in their daily life. Then convert their raw demands including large storage and courtyard needs, later life habits, bonded neighborhood interaction etc. into the integrated design. Thus, in the final construction outcome, the cluster house grouping creates various village cores to give possibilities for neighborhood bonding; individual courtyard serves as private space for veggie garden, storage and sun-cure habit; housing style refined from traditional Northern Jiangsu Architecture - layered white gable wall with dark roof tiles - and simplified to meet the budget.

Inspiration

The cluster house grouping creates various village cores to give possibilities for neighborhood bonding; individual courtyard serves as private space for veggie garden, storage and sun-cure habit; housing style refined from traditional Northern Jiangsu Architecture and simplified to meet the budget.

Image Credits

Design: Bluetown Architects
Photo Credit: Zhi-Yi Studio

Colors of Song-Zhang-Kou Rural Housing