Zhangyan Country Living Festival: A Blueprint for Future Rural Life

Revitalizing Rural China through Innovative and Sustainable Design

The festival is an embodiment of the Memphis school's creativity, integrating elements of rural history and culture to form a unique brand image. The brand graphics are three-dimensionally extended to form a systematic space design language. The construction is built using local abandoned containers and discarded native resources such as wood, straw, and reeds, reflecting the festival's commitment to sustainability.

The project is an initiative by Lou Yongqi, Dean of the D&I, Tongji University, John Sakara, Academician of the RAC, and Aldo Cibic, one of Memphis school founders. It aims to advance practices of sustainable living and find the meeting point in various design fields through the exploration of cross-boundary thinking. The core spirit of the design is the brand culture of "innovation" and "sustainability".

The festival's activity space spans 5000 square meters, built from old containers to form a dynamic thematic exhibition space. The containers are staggered, stacked, interlaced, and stretched to create an open and enclosed form, providing areas for holding forums and marketplace activities. The design team, including Jiaqing Wu, Jia Lin, Yin Shi, Lei Yu, Ling Ma, Suying Zheng, Lu Xiao, Xinyan Wang, and Ronglan Wang, worked tirelessly to bring this vision to life.

The project started in August 2019 in Shanghai and was completed in November 2019. The design approach was based on integrating the independent and compatible relationships among the main visual design, space design, and guidance system. The main visual design integrates the design style of Memphis School, abstracting the "mountain, water, fish, bridge" and other abstract graphics with the regional characteristics of Zhangyan to form the main visual symbol of this event.

The design faced challenges in fitting the project proposition of "sustainable development". The space design was creatively combined with the original resources of the site, re-stimulating its sustainability with the vitality given by design. With the reuse of materials, a recyclable overall system was established to reduce waste. The project market constructed with vitality system publicizes the concepts of "everything has an afterlife", "everything makes the best use of" and "each has its own place".

The Zhangyan Country Living Festival was awarded Silver in A' Event and Happening Design Award in 2021. This recognition is a testament to the project's outstanding expertise and innovation, and its commitment to creating a blueprint for the future of rural life.