cultural tourism

Eduard Kögel: Jinyun Quarries, in Architectural Practice 12/2022, p. 142–151.

Jinyun Quarries

Video: Jinyun Quarries

The mountainous landscape of Jinyun County in Zhejiang Province, China, has been shaped by the manual mining of natural stone. For the rugged and hard-to-access region, the Beijing architect Xu Tiantian and her team were asked to develop strategies for new uses for nine of the over 3000 small, abandoned quarries, which now provide a stage for cultural and social activities, and simultaneously strive for ecological improvements and create new economic perspectives for the rural population. The pits, provided with new functions, have become part of a public infrastructure that puts historical aspects extending back over a thousand years as well as the everyday culture heritage in a new context. The exhibition, which reached us from Beijing by the most sustainable means of transport possible, namely by train, communicates the breath-taking sense of space in the stone quarries of Jinyun in a large-scale installation. Spacious, translucent models, photos, plans, and films visualize the complex structure of the spaces carved into the rock.

Xu Tiantian

JINYUN QUARRIES— THE QUARRY AS STAGE

JINYUN QUARRIES— THE QUARRY AS STAGE

From economic exploitation to ecological reuse
XU Tiantian / DnA_Design and Architecture, Beijing

Exhibition 19 March – 5 May 2022
Opening Friday, 18 March 2022

The mountainous landscape of Jinyun County in Zhejiang Province, China, has been shaped by the manual mining of natural stone. For the rugged and hard-to-access region, the Beijing architect Xu Tiantian and her team were asked to develop strategies for new uses for nine of the over 3000 small, abandoned quarries, which now provide a stage for cultural and social activities, and simultaneously strive for ecological improvements and create new economic perspectives for the rural population. The pits, provided with new functions, have become part of a public infrastructure that puts historical aspects extending back over a thousand years as well as the everyday culture heritage in a new context. The exhibition, which reached us from Beijing by the most sustainable means of transport possible, namely by train, communicates the breath-taking sense of space in the stone quarries of Jinyun in a large-scale installation. Spacious, translucent models, photos, plans, and films visualize the complex structure of the spaces carved into the rock.

The Songyang Story

Book Songyang Story

THE SONGYANG STORY

Architectural Acupuncture as Driver for Rural Revitalisation in China. Projects by Xu Tiantian, DnA_Beijing

Architectural acupuncture works: how architect Xu Tiantian’s interventions change communal life in rural China and what lessons can be learned from them

Edited by Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell. With essays by Eduard Kögel, Saskia Sassen, Remy Sietchiping, Martino Stierli, Wang Jun and Xu Tiantian

1st edition, 2020, Text in English, Hardcover, 272 pages, 139 color and 72 b/w illustrations and plans, 29.5 x 29.5 cm

ISBN 978-3-03860-186-9

Online-Discussion

Online Discussion BIFT, Beijing

ARCHITECTURAL PHENOMENOLOGY FORUM SERIES 2020

TIME – SPACE RELATIONS : HOW TO APPROACH SPACE TIME?

 

4. JULY 2020

 

Xu Tiantian in Austria

Ausstellungseröffnung, Vorträge, Diskussion

Rural Moves – New Perspectives for Rural Areas in China and Austria

Im Rahmen der Ausstellung „Rural Moves – The Songyang Story“

Begrüßung: Angelika Fitz, Direktorin Az W; Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Direktor Aedes Architekturforum, Berlin

Einführung: Eduard Kögel, Kurator, Berlin; Liu Shouying, Rural Economist, Peking

Vorträge: Xu Tiantian, DnA_Design and Architecture, Peking; Roland Gruber, Landluft – Verein zur Förderung von Baukultur in ländlichen Räumen

Podiumsdiskussion: Roland Gruber, Eduard Kögel, Liu Shouying, Xu Tiantian

Eröffnung: Angelika Fitz, Direktorin Az W; Kristin Feireiss, Direktorin Aedes Architekturforum, Berlin; LI Xiaosi, Chinesischer Botschafter in Österreich

Songyang-Regions on the Rise

Songyang-Regions on the Rise Conference

8–10. November 2018

Rethinking strategies for new rural developments is a pressing global challenge today. Dynamic urbanization processes shape large areas of the world – and China in particular – while the hinterland has long been a subject of neglect. To stimulate an international discussion, Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin presented the exhibition ‘Rural Moves – The Songyang Story’ this year, which led to the initiation of the conference ‘Regions on the Rise – Culture and Architecture as Drivers for Rural Development’ in Songyang County, China. The focus lies on the dualities and interrelations occurring in the relationship between the urban and the rural, always seeking to explore what culture and architecture can do in interplay with economy, spatial planning, infrastructure and ecology. This development might establish new concepts and therefore a new rural con dence and identity as well as economic progress and reliability as major incentives to make people stay or even return into the hinterland.

Words of Welcome and Introduction
Xiang Zhaolun Minister for Culture at the Central Government, Beijing, China

Kristin Feireiss Director Aedes Architecture Forum and Network Campus Berlin, Germany

Hu Haifeng Mayor of Lishui City, China

Key Lecture

Remy Sietchiping Leader, Regional and Metropolitan Planning, UN-HABITAT, Nairobi, Kenya

Introduction

Wang Jun Magistrate Songyang County, China

Hans-Jürgen Commerell Director Aedes Architecture Forum and Network Campus Berlin, Germany

Xu Tiantian Architect, Beijing, China

Eduard Kögel Architecture Historian, Berlin, Germany

Ten by Ten Impulse Statements

Experts from various elds and different countries report on their research and experiences on rural development made in their speci c region or institution.

  1. Zhang Ke Founding Principal, ZAO/standardarchitecture 标准营造, Beijing, China, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, USA
  2. Angel Luis Fernandez Head of Research Center for Urban Design, ESNE. School of Design, Innovation and Technology, Madrid, Spain
  3.  Zhang Lei Professor, Founder & Chief Architect, Nanjing University, AZL architects, Nanjing, China
  4. Angelika Fitz Director, Austrian Architecture Museum, Vienna, Austria
  5. Miriam Mlecek Researcher, formerly Leibniz University Hanover / ANCB

    Programme Manager, Berlin, Germany

  6. Zhang Yue Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
  7. Nuria Costa Leonardo Mexican Women’s Network, Civic Society, Morelos,

    Mexico

  8. Huang Yung Sung Art Director, Han Sheng Magazine, Taiwan
  9. Adrian Iredale Director, Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects, Perth, Australia
  10. Zhu Jingxiang Professor, Hong Kong University, China

Panel ONE: Culture + Architecture

Moderator: Andreas Ruby Director, Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel, Switzerland

Li Xiangning Professor, Tongji University, Curator Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2018, Shanghai, China

Hitoshi Abe Architecture and Urban Design Chair, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA, Atelier Hitoshi Abe, Sendai, Japan

Farrokh Derakhshani Director, Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland

Panel TWO: Ecology and Economy + Architecture

Moderator: Aric Chen Curator-at-large, M+, Hong Kong

Liu Shouying Economist, China

Erhard An-He Kinzelbach, Professor, Founder KNOWSPACE, Berlin, Germany

Juan Mayr, Foreign Office, Bogotá, Colombia

Lina Annab, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Amman, Jordan