Press Release
Bronze A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Goes to Stone White Villagers Activity Center by Minjie Si and Xianfeng Ye
Minjie Si and Xianfeng Ye recognized for architecture, building and structure design by the international grand jury of the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 22, 2022 /DesignNewswire/ Stone White Villagers Activity Center by Minjie Si and Xianfeng Ye, designed for Vrap, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The recognition forms part of the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Bronze A' Design Award
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
More About Stone White Villagers Activity Center
A ruined stone house located at the entry point of the village was chosen as the site of the community activity center. The design challenge is to accommodate the preservation of the original structure as much as possible and installation of new functions. Two existing trees are kept on the site, a steel-tube-supported stairs were constructed around the trees, which leads to a new platform that also serves as the entrance to the second floor. Built during the pandemic, the project was completed mainly by the locals through a community participatory process with low-tech methods.
About Minjie Si and Xianfeng Ye
With increased urbanization in China, both people living in the old city center and rural farmers are having to adjust to life outside of their traditional communal lifestyle. Meanwhile with the development of the Chinese middle-class, now many Chinese aspire to new collective spaces for the social change, which can accommodate more possibilities and variability, and therefore create collective memory for the new generations. VRAP (Vernacular Research and Practice) was established by Minjie Si in Beijing 2016. focus on re-defining new collective spaces through observing social evolution and technological progress, modern transformation of towns and villages.
Award Record
With this recognition, Minjie Si and Xianfeng Ye is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award
The A' Architecture Design Award is an international architectural design competition recognizing good architectural designs by best architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to architectural design studios, building contractors, structural engineering firms and architecture and design consultants from all countries. Entries typically include skyscrapers, museums, residential buildings, commercial complexes, educational institutions and religious structures. Awarded architectural projects are published at https://designers.org/design-category/architecture
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/128207
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/128207
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!128207
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/309602
- Further Information from the Laureate: http://www.vrapstudio.com
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Stone White Villagers Activity Center
- Function
- Villagers Activity Center
- Category
- Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture
- Colors
- Gray, Dim Gray, Dark Slate Gray, Rosy Brown and White Smoke
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Vrap
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Minjie Si and Xianfeng Ye
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2021 - 2022
- Design ID
- #128207
Credits
- Team
- Minjie Si, Weixiong Jiang, Xue Li, Xuejiao Li, Xinfei Guo and Xianfeng Ye, Zulong Zheng
- Image Credits
- Photographer Minjie Si, "Stone White" and the Vernacular Surroundings, 2021; Photographer Minjie Si, Feiyue Village, 2021; Photographer Minjie Si, Aerial View of "Stone White", 2021; Photographer Minjie Si, White House above the Preserved Stone Wall, 2021; Photographer Minjie Si, Tree Staris, 2021
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The activity center for villagers was built during epidemic time, mainly by the locals through community participatory process with low-tech methods. A balance is achieved between built and preserved, specificity and generality, immediacy and evolutionary instinct. The objective is to build open public infrastructure, by reusing the existing traces and imagining their future development. It's a matter of reading the richness of a specific context in order to plan new rurality, capable of stimulating both villagers and out comers.
- Inspiration
- The activity center for villagers was arranged at the entrance of the community during the regeneration of Feiyue Village, calling for reusing the ruin site of a stone house. The design comes up with the challenge that how to intelligently preserve the original structure and build on the existing traces. A new light-structured white house therefore was designed to rise above the heavy stone walls. Two trees are kept on the site, embraced by steel-tube-supported stairs, give a guide to the new platform above the originals.
- Research
- We are trying to achieve a delicate balance between strategy and form, built and preserved, rigor and freedom, specificity and generality, immediacy and evolutionary instinct. The objective is to build open public infrastructures, by reusing the existing traces and imagining their future development. In short, it's a matter of reading the richness of a specific context in order to plan rural culture buildings, capable of stimulating both villagers and out comers.
- Challenge
- It is difficult to calculate how much steel we need to use to strengthen the existing stone wall and it is difficult to calculate whether we have used enough metal tubes to support the stair and platform. Both the structure is informal, which can only be tested on the site by doing a mock-up. Intelligent reuse and demolishing of the stone wall is also a challenge.
- Realization and Technology
- preserved stone wall with thickness of 400mm; light steel structure as main structure to strengthen the existing stone wall and support the new white house above; steel tubes with different diameters 30mm,40mm and 50mm are used as an alternative supporting system for stairs and platform.
- Operation and Interaction
- It was built during epidemic time, mainly built by the local villagers through a community participatory process with low-tech methods. Since few people can be found from outside for construction during that special time and same for the transportation of construction materials. Despite of essential light steel structure, we used the metal tubes with different diameters 30mm,40mm and 50mm as an alternative supporting system, which was one of the most economical materials and easy for handcraft.
- Project Duration and Location
- The design started in May 2019 and finished in November 2019 in Beijing. The construction of the project started in November 2019 and finished in October 2020 in Feiyue Village, Qichun County, Hubei Province.
- Specifications
- preserved stone wall with thickness of 400mm; light steel structure as main structure to strengthen the existing stone wall and support the new white house above, main column with the dimension of 100mm*100mm; steel tubes with different diameters 30mm,40mm and 50mm are used as an alternative supporting system for stairs and platform.
- Keywords
- regeneration, rural design, stone, tree house, community center, light steel structure
