Naya village, located in Chengmai county of Hainan, the big island in the southernmost end of China, said to be established at 1600s, was selected into the Chinese Traditional Villages List in 2016. Close to Qiongzhou Strait, Chengmai is where most Han Chinese landed on the island mitigating from the mainland dated back from as early as Tang Dynasty. Major clans of Han Chinese settled down here, generations after generations, to build clusters of traditional villages, and spread to other places all over the island and even overseas.

The eruption of ancient volcanos at the 4th century generated the fertile land and volcanic rocks which are ingeniously adopted by local craftsmen to create a featuring built environment: traditional mainland village “skeleton” kept while black “skin” gifted. It forms the significant material cultural heritage that represents the intersection of agricultural civilization and marine civilization. However, the traditional villages are shrinking caught in between the fast expansion of urbanization. Without modern infrastructure and industry, villagers all moved out leaving the villages hollow to ruins. This historical footprint is gradually vanishing…

Balancing between old and new

In the process of protection and renovation, it is tricky to grasp good control of the balance between old and new. It could never be the “new” that has no bond with the past. It reminds us the similar relationship between a chic grandchild and his elegant grandfather, in which the trail of time could be appreciated, and the outlook to the future could be expected.

As hard as we tried to restore the record of time through the clues we could explore, we are still committed to updating some proper innovated progresses to it. The touch of time on old trees, old alleyways, and old houses must be conserved, while the “new” modern infrastructures and living functions should be implanted into it. It is as delicate as a skin surgery to implant the modern infrastructures such as electricity and water pipes into the narrow paths, and to recover the pavement after digging and installation. The volcanic rock walls are also dismantled and numbered one by one, and reinforced and restored for both safety and flavor of time.

Implanting symphonies of light

‘Ten post house’, the local traditional settlement, is formed by two parts: the typical wood structure type of Chuandou houses, widely distributed in South China, and the local thick volcanic rock external walls, a great contributor to the thermal insulation. Totally relied on manual work at old times, the ten posts symmetrically arranged are so short that could only frame a low and narrow space, but they are deliberately designed to be “fat” to boast the dignity of the family. Only the half part of the posts facing the living room is polished to be full-round and smooth, and the other half behind is neglected to be flat and unpolished. Furthermore, the internal space has no sanitary wares and is filled with a shabby gloom due to tiny window openings and the coarse internal façade of walls.

Distinctive renovation strategies are adopted for the two categories of the current state: for the nine houses in the west end where the structures are completely remained, only slight repairing and internal decoration are planned to turn them into the workstations for onsite designers; and inside the six houses in the east end, wood structures are all rotten, leaving only ruined external walls covered with vines. We try to preserve as many favorable traditional elements as possible including nature-adaptability and cultural features, so the volcanic rock walls are repaired, and the roof cladding of traditional tiles are restored with water proof and insulated materials added under it. To evolve into a pilot showcase of traditional volcanic rock houses meeting the modern living demands, structure implanting is regarded as the key solution.

As a prototype, posts of “Ten Post House” are deconstructed in an exploded view, and a renewed wood structure supported by taller and slimmer posts is created. The roof is elevated to be seemingly floating where light and wind could shower in for a better interior space quality. All the wood components are designed to be “softly” jointed in the traditional mortise and tenon approach and prefabricated by CNC machine in factory, considering the tight time schedule of the project and the potential for future duplication.

Various gap zones, generated between the internal glazed envelope in standard sizes and the square of external rock walls in random sizes, turn into tropical gardens full of vigor with lush plants. Light can get in gently through the central long skylights high from the ceiling and through the gap gardens, performing a sprightly symphony varying with time, co-played with wood structures, volcanic rock walls, and flourishing plants.

Weaving with translucence

Naya was fully occupied by private residential houses without any public space. The best location for Naya Hall is found to be at the plot of land closest to the paddy fields where only ruins of three houses’ walls are left, besides the land god temple and stone dog statute.

To reincarnated into public space, it must be built beyond the original boundaries of the residential houses. A series of three wood structure units with standard width of 3 meters, 3.6 meters and 4.5 meters are built up over the old ruins in accordance with the original position of the hanging tiles. The roofs extend sequentially as if three white birds are spreading their wings and hovering elegantly over the ruins on the flat raised lands.

Though in the same structuring logic as the six residential houses, enlarged structures “woven” by deconstructed posts and beams are strengthened by steel cables, which enables a more thorough interpretation of the jointing approach for ‘Ten Posts Houses’ in a modern structuring language.

Repaired walls of former residential houses are enfolded by the enlarged wood structures, where the old memories of Naya are wrapped inside. The S unit facing the pond, opening up like the canopy of a big tree, provides a broad grey space to welcome people into this area, following the local habit of enjoying the cool in the shade. The M and L units are enveloped by polycarbonate hollow sheets to create bigger and brighter indoor space. The interior space and the grey space under the extended roofs could be flexibly mixed or divided through the switch between folding and closing of the curtain walls.

The translucence and openness of Naya Hall, based on a strong contrast of material texture, breaks the dullness of overwhelmingly intensive volcanic rocks, distinguishing it from the highly secretive residential area. A dynamic combination of the three units is realized, via the sequence, modular, and interchange of virtual and solid, to provide spaces for modern lifestyle such as exhibitions, workshops, and canteen of the shared community.

When the twilight falls, it turns into a string of big lanterns enlightening new spirits for villagers, and forms a poetic and inspiring intertexture of warm wood structures, hazy polycarbonate hollow sheets, delicate steel cables and dark rock walls, setting against the spectacular tropical dusk, tall coconut trees, and green paddy fields.

Restoring ecological wisdom

"The art of Feng Shui prioritizes water," as the saying goes. Usually built upon water veins, each traditional village has three wells: one for drinking, one for washing clothes, and one for bathing. In terms of water management, we have restored the landscape around the ancient wells and created a small ecological wetland using natural underground water. To facilitate water flow, we further cleared drainage ditches on one side of the alleyways, ensuring that during typhoons rainwater can spontaneously pass along the traditional route of "woods, lanes, wells, ponds, and fields". The granite railings added few years ago are removed and a waterfront platform is installed, to restore the village to its original paradigm of “energy gathering and vibrant vitality”.

In terms of landscape vegetation arrangement, the traditional layout of "front banyan, rear cloth, and loquat in the middle" is conserved and reinforced: the bushes and weeds that have grown wild for years under big banyan tree at the entrance and those under the rows of coconut trees lining the south face of the village have been cleared, and wooden benches are placed to let villagers lounge in the shade to enjoy the pastoral scenery. A wide variety of tropical fruit trees are planted, such as carambola, guavas, jackfruit, mango and wax apple, according to the traditions, genuinely realizing the joyful life of "a food freedom tribe".

Awakened by this short song

“Songs are, where the mind is going to. In the heart, it is called ‘mind’; spoken out, it is called ‘song’”, quoted from Chinese classic works Book of Songs. A local renovation is to turn mind into song. We hope to speak out local memories of time-honored stories and profound emotions through a song composed by the language of architecture.

After years of efforts on researching and designing, and a fast pace of repairing and constructing, we have completed a small showcase of traditional village renovation in Naya to our own expectation. Though being peaceful as before, Naya Village has remarked its fortune with renewed vigor. By this short “song” we composed, we have finally awakened a deep memory that has been forgotten so long.