The Miao Style Town: A Blend of Tradition and Innovation

Yiping Yu and Shuangwu He's Award-Winning Design Balances Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development

The Miao Style Town draws its inspiration from the rich cultural heritage of the Miao people. Elements such as the bronze drum, pitched roof framework, cow horn, and plant decoration patterns, extracted from Miao totems, costumes, and architecture, are interwoven to create a unique pattern. This pattern reflects the unique characteristics and profound cultural deposits of the Miao people.

What sets this design apart is its commitment to sustainable development. The design team balanced the impact of ecology, society, and economy to enable the project to achieve maximum ecological, economic, social, and cultural benefits in the long run. The project introduces ecology, urban aesthetic perception, and other ideas to build a cultural town with traditional Miao characteristics, forming a spatial pattern of “one belt, two axes, three streets and 24 major travel timing”.

The realization of this project involved careful utilization and transformation of the terrain to maximize its use and reduce investment in earthwork projects and preventive works. The design team adopted architectural elements with Miao characteristics and integrated Miao villages’ characteristics of being located near mountains into the layout of the architecture. The layout of inner streets is featured by yards, forming three characteristic commercial streets to show the charm of Miao culture.

Technical specifications of the project contribute to the formation of a spatial pattern of "One Belt (Miao-style riverside landscape belt), Two Axes (Miao's history and culture axis and Miao's leisure life & landscape axis), Three Streets (Folk Custom Old Street, Miao-style Old Street and Miao-style Water Street) and 24 Major Travel Timing". The project also takes into consideration the pedestrian system separated from the vehicle system, and designs a slow traffic mode with pedestrian-water cruise ships and three docks in the city.

The Miao Style Town serves as a new landmark of tourism, culture, and leisure in Rongshui. The participation of Miao people from surrounding regions into the project makes themselves both residents and workers of the town. They are satisfied materially (employment) and improved spiritually (a deep understanding of their own culture and a broad recognition of the external culture), and are able to give full play to their strengths, create value and maximize their value.

The project started in June 2018 and finished in October 2019 in Rongshui Miao Autonomous County, Liuzhou. It covers an area of some 210,000 square meters. The design team, consisting of several senior engineers and engineers, faced several challenges during the design process. However, they managed to balance the demands of builders, users, managers, and other parties, such as the demands of economic value, social benefit, construction cost, cycle time, and artistic value.

The Miao Style Town was awarded Silver in A' Construction and Real Estate Projects Design Award in 2021, a testament to its outstanding design and innovation. This project is a shining example of how traditional culture and modern design principles can coexist harmoniously, creating a space that is both aesthetically pleasing and culturally significant.