Every year, the Village of Xinxing, in Hainan’s Chengmai County is threatened by tropical and severe Super Typhoons that are endangering any opportunities for recovery and resilience.
How do we safeguard a rural village in the event of these natural disasters?
What is the role of architects in light of these events?
How does a village become resilient if they continue to be hindered by these severe storms?
These questions became overarching issues that formed the foundation for our analysis.
During the past 12 weeks, our Master of Architecture design studio has thoroughly investigated responses to provide future resilience for Xinxing Village. In order to ascertain an optimal design outcome for Xinxing’s future we analysed the following; existing village footprint, village fabric, agricultural extents, key landmarks, village architecture, surrounding landscape, flood inundation, water catchments, village culture, contemporary Chinese architecture and spatial syntax of the existing village.
From our research, three main variables were identified as critical to Xinxing’s future plan for resilience;
– an in-depth understanding of flood inundation,
– agricultural extents
– the existing village fabric
These variables became the framework for our design proposal. Arresting sea surges and flood waters in the annual event of a typhoon were considered equally important as retaining as much of the existing village; their culture, heritage, livelihoods and agrarian use of land. We are proposing an interdisciplinary strategy that involves key landscape interventions, urban transformations and architectural responses that address sea surges, flood inundation and village expansion.