Homestay Project at Dajing

Dajing, a poor village located in Renhua County, Shaoguang City, Guangdong Province, has its history dating back to Ming Dynasty. Inside the village mainly are brick-concrete structured houses, and there are several century-old camphor trees.

With the homestay project, we aim to promote the development of Dajing Village, bring more attention to old village, old camphor trees, and strive to pursue a sound, integrated development of people’s life, agricultural activities, and ecology.

As the master plan shows, the design follows the basic structure of village while integrating its own style by arranging the buildings like an enclosed courtyard.

The old camphor trees are just like the threads to guide the development the architectural space. On top of that, together with the streams and courtyard, they all serve as the main design elements. With the transition of internal and external spaces, the space diversification gets highlighted. Through the outdoor corridor, it connects to the dining hall, book bar, detached villa, guest room, main building, and other spaces. The “inconvenience “deliberately created by such spatial connection just works to show the difference between urban and rural buildings. In such a space, you would feel as if walking free in an old village.

The application of common materials, such as concrete, wood-like aluminum, glass, and brick, seems to conceal the building in this village. Such a natural way can let us get fully integrated and not get distracted.

All buildings face the streams and old trees, making the internal space more mysterious and enticing; they also face towards the provincial highway, making the homestay buildings more prominent and accessible. In addition to functional fulfillment, the architect wants to well integrate the new building into Dajing Village while keeping its independence and maintaining its own style.