Xiuwu County, located in Jiaozuo City in western Henan Province and formerly known as Huaiqing Prefecture, benefits from unique soil and climate conditions that support the production of the renowned “Four Great Huai Medicines.” Among these, Rehmannia glutinosa stands out. The term “Rehmannia glutinosa” refers specifically to its traditional cooking process. Due to its significant medicinal and economic value, the cultivation and processing of Rehmannia glutinosa have garnered considerable attention.
The Yanmen Village Ice Chrysanthemum Plantation, originally conceived as a “factory building,” was transformed into an “exhibition hall” concept. This plantation is a key Huaiyao cultivation project actively promoted and supported by the Xiuwu County government in Jiaozuo City. The Provincial Department of Finance has granted special funding for this effort, covering facilities such as the cooked land processing workshop, drying yard, and craft exhibition hall. The processing workshop and drying yard were completed in 2020. The workshop features a portal frame structural design, and the technology exhibition hall, scheduled for completion in 2021 with foundation excavation finished by the end of 2020, is also planned to use a similar portal frame structure.
At the start of 2021, our team was invited to Yanmen Village to begin design work. Industrial revitalization is a primary focus for Houyanmen, with plantation construction integral to the village’s overall development. Towns, villages, and industrial parks traditionally perceive buildings within industrial parks as factories or exhibition halls. This mindset is common in rural areas, where traditional craftsmen and their techniques are often incompatible with large-span, open spaces, leading to the adoption of mature industrial plant construction systems.
However, the role of rural planting industries has evolved beyond production. Driven by rural informatization and comprehensive development, plantations now encompass industrial tourism, natural education, e-commerce live streaming, health and wellness activities, and more, linking primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. In this context, using a portal frame “factory building” as an exhibition hall feels inappropriate. Through active dialogue and persuasion, we encouraged stakeholders to embrace a new design philosophy for the skilled craft exhibition hall. While meeting requirements for large-span open spaces, the hall also embodies exhibition, local, and ecological characteristics.
2. “Sunlight” as the Heart of Craftsmanship and Space
Through on-site research into the processing techniques of Rehmannia glutinosa, we discovered that its cooking tradition dates back to Sun Simiao’s “nine steaming and nine drying” method. This process involves continuous steaming and drying, closely linked to exposure to sunlight. We embraced this unique pharmaceutical technique as the core design concept, focusing on creating a space flooded with natural light. Light becomes the building’s main theme, offering dynamic visual experiences both inside and outside.
From an architectural standpoint, a circular form provides more subtle, uniform, and continuous shadow patterns than a square shape. The interplay of light and shadow over time is more distinct on a curved surface, making the circular building the central design inspiration. To facilitate precise and efficient construction, we avoided true curves and instead used nearly circular regular polygons to form “straight” curves.
Traditional architecture relies on windows set into walls for lighting. We explored unconventional ways of bringing in light, including zenith lighting, eaves lighting, and wall seam lighting, avoiding simple wall openings to create special lighting effects.
A circular layout with symmetrical centers is ideal for exhibition spaces. Designing the exhibition flow is a key organizational aspect. The Skilled Craftsmanship Exhibition Hall features a circular floor plan with a 37-meter diameter. Visitors circulate along this perimeter, creating an efficient exhibition flow that minimizes overlap and detours. This approach greatly reduces future exhibition work and lowers construction costs—especially important in rural settings.
The 37-meter diameter structural framework includes a central drop column frame, balancing economy and spatial variety. The space is divided into multiple concentric rings: the outer ring combines enclosing walls with a wooden structural frame, supporting display boards for craft exhibits; the middle ring hosts shelving for various seasoned products, consisting of densely arranged structural columns for stability and storage; and the central inner ring is open, featuring a stepped circular seating area designed for health activities and forums. A skylight crowns the center, emphasizing the focal point.
Traditional wooden structures embody a noteworthy sustainable concept aligned with the 3R principle—especially the idea of combining structural and furniture components. For example, in Jingdezhen’s ancient kiln clay mold-making rooms still in use, wooden frame columns are mortised to hold small beams, which support partitions where clay molds are shaded. This ingenious approach conserves materials and space by integrating structure and furniture.
The Shu Di Craft Exhibition Hall draws inspiration from this traditional wisdom by breaking down large columns into arrays of smaller columns. These arrays are stacked vertically and horizontally to secure secondary small beams, with wooden boards placed atop for storage. These components serve dual purposes as structural supports and functional shelving, shaping a unique spatial environment.
The small column arrays are modular, assembled repeatedly and parallelly in standard units. This modular approach offers two key advantages for rural construction: 1) Smaller components can be moved and assembled manually, enabling villagers to participate directly, overcoming logistical challenges posed by narrow, sloped rural roads that restrict large equipment access. 2) Standardized components improve processing and assembly efficiency, conserving labor and materials—a practical method for rural settlements.
The Skilled Craftsmanship Exhibition Hall features a roof truss design based on a regular 18-sided polygon. Each side’s endpoint is shifted toward the center to align perpendicularly with the structural columns. The staggered arrangement of the adjacent walls creates 18 varying wall gaps that allow natural light to produce rich shadow patterns inside.
At the core is a 2.5-meter diameter skylight, formed by the natural rotation and separation of the dome’s structural column beams. Using a spiral ring stacking method for the roof truss avoids dense central nodes that would complicate connections and increase costs. This method ensures no two components share the same endpoint, preventing hinged nodes. The wooden beams interlock and support each other spirally, forming a continuous, stable structural system.
Most homes in Houyanmen Village were built between the 1970s and 1990s using red bricks and clear water wall techniques. Roofs typically feature triangular wooden frames. Some structures are abandoned blue brick buildings with raised beams and wooden frames, while others built after 2000 utilize brick and concrete construction.
Xunfeng Town, administratively linked to Houyanmen Village, has operated brick kilns since the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today, brick factories located just two or three kilometers away continue to produce red bricks, which remain affordable and popular building materials among villagers.
Similarly, the enclosure walls and interior partitions of the Shu Di Craft Exhibition Hall are constructed using local red bricks and clear water techniques, with village masons carrying out the bricklaying.
The village’s traditional homes feature brick walls on the lower sections with wooden frames above. The Shu Di Craft Exhibition Hall follows this pattern in its material arrangement. Given the need for large open exhibition spaces, wooden frames not only support the upper roof but also serve as supports for the lower frame columns.
To avoid issues like cracking and deformation, glued laminated wood is used, with wooden members connected by bolts and metal fittings. This combination of local red bricks, clear water walls, and engineered wooden frame structures enhances structural integrity and durability, while maintaining a connection to the traditional village aesthetic. This approach satisfies both the spatial demands of rural industrial display buildings and the desire for a strong sense of place.
Project Drawings
△ Model Diagram
Project Information
Architect: Luo Yujie Studio
Area: 1463 m²
Project Year: 2021
Photographer: Jin Weiqi
Design Team: Luo Yujie, Wang Beilei, Cao Yutao, Huang Shangwan, Zhang Chen
Owner: Xunfeng Town People’s Government, Xiuwu County
Location: Jiaozuo
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