1st phase Dafang Creative Village realised

China has undergone an unprecedented urbanisation process, from being a predominant rural society to having an estimated one billion Chinese living in cities in 2050. In this transformation so far, urban migration has left hundreds of thousands of villages abandoned. Many of these have dozens of generations of social, cultural and monumental value but are currently lacking major future significance.

To address this challenge, NEXT architects with IVEM (Dutch Institute for Cultural Heritage and Marketing), SMARTLAND landscape architects (landscape design), Total Design (graphic design) and numerous artists were asked by the Government of Jinxi, Jiangxi Province to develop a strategy for one of its 102 abandoned villages, Dafang. NEXT architects was responsible for the masterplan, architecture and interior.