Mugou Village is situated in the heart of the Lixiahe Plain, within Yilin Town, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province. The Mugou New Village project responds to Jiangsu Province’s 2020 initiative to build “New Rural Communities.” Its goals are to enhance farmers’ living conditions, combat rural depopulation, and foster urban-rural integration for the modern era.
The project centralizes government management of buildings in the old Mugou Village and introduces new functions. A new village will be constructed 250 meters west of the old settlement, featuring resettlement housing. In the first phase, 38 households will be relocated to this new community.
The new village’s planning and layout continue the traditional water town landscape, guided by the principle of “maximizing landscape preservation.” Mugou Village benefits from a well-developed water system, where the interplay of waterways, rice paddies, ponds, and village layout creates the unique lake-like scenery characteristic of the old settlement.
The new village carefully integrates resettlement housing within the existing lake area, adopting a cautious approach to natural transformation. This preserves the original landform features of the “water field village” and maintains the authentic sense of place.
The spatial organization of Mugou New Village reflects the clustered settlement pattern typical of water towns. It employs a typological combination of spaces, arranging five distinct housing types into courtyards of four households and clusters of six to ten households. Each cluster centers around a shared courtyard, allowing organic growth from individual courtyards to larger community settlements.
As a continuation of the water town style, Mugou New Village represents a modern rural settlement that combines contemporary design with traditional architectural language. It emphasizes the relationship between the new and old villages. The design uses abstract geometry to reinterpret local formal language, featuring dark gray tiled roofs contrasted against pale blue brick walls. This creates a striking interplay of lines, surfaces, and forms, evoking the charm and artistic spirit of traditional water town residences in northern Jiangsu.
In summary, this new village project follows principles of building a new community and settlement without losing connection to the land or hometown. It preserves the traditional settlement’s geomorphology, architectural style, spatial organization, and scale at four levels: residential forms, courtyard combinations, cluster settlements, and overall settlement texture. This integration ensures the new village harmonizes with the old village and natural environment, creating a familiar setting for residents. It also serves as a meaningful design model for new rural settlements in northern Jiangsu’s water towns.
Project Drawings
△ Base schematic diagram
△ General layout plan
Before construction
Overall bird’s-eye view
△ General layout plan
△ Plan view
△ Plan view
△ Elevation drawing
△ Floor plan
△ Elevation drawing
△ Village elevation map
△ Analysis chart
△ Analysis chart
△ Axonometric diagram
△ Axonometric diagram
Project Information
Architect: Zhou Ling Studio, Nanjing University Design Institute
Area: 5356 m²
Project Year: 2021
Photographer: Hou Bowen
Lead Architect: Zhou Ling
Design Team: Zhou Ling, Yang Dan, Xia Zihan, Fang Ming, Zhang Zun, Zhou Fangfang
Structural Design: Zhang An, Wang Jian
Landscape Design: Zhang Xuanyue
Construction Company: Jiangsu Shenggong Construction Group Co., Ltd
Location: Yancheng
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