Junzhe Qi, Wei Fan - YTAA 2020 Asia Shortlist

Discover the vernacular genetic code

In recent years, the architectural texture and courtyard form of Chinese traditional villages have been continuously destroyed.Based on shape grammar, we define the rules of texture generation, monomer generation and facade generation to continue the countryside form by analyzing the original texture genes and architectural organization rules.

In the long process of changes, Chinese traditional villages will form diverse material and cultural characteristics, which are reflected in the diversity and complexity of the original village texture and courtyard form. However, at present, the original rural texture is gradually replaced by the “barrack-style” texture. The reason for this situation is the unreasonable design method of rural residential areas and the lack of reference to the formation of the original texture. Therefore, we try to use the generative design method of shape grammar to discover the rules from the original texture and deduce the rules to generate the scheme.

The project is located in Zhuo Village, Laiyang City, Shandong Province, China. First, we analyzed the growth mode of the original texture of zhuo village and the organizational form of the building. Secondly, according to the analytical results, the rules of 8-level texture generation, 4-level building generation and 6-level facade generation are formulated based on the shape grammar, and the sample database of corresponding rules is established in an exhaustive way for each level of rules. After that, a variety of alternative schemes are generated by the operation of rules at all levels, and the villagers are allowed to participate in the selection phase of the scheme. As for the rules of texture generation, we first defined the 7-level rules to generate different levels of house site combination sample database, and realized multiple combination and splicing of samples, multi-level differentiation of internal functions, and the change of road width. The final rule is that the villagers participate in the selection of the preliminary plan, and then the plan and the current site texture overlap.The homestead that overlaps with the initial scheme in the plot is reserved, the remaining homestead can be demolished and rebuilt, and the texture arrangement scheme of the given plot is finally generated. As for the building generation rules, we define the 4-levels rule to control the generation of building sample database, and realize the formation of the form and location of the main and auxiliary rooms in the homestead and the public sundeck in the neighborhood. For the rules of facade generation, we define the the 6-level rules to control the generation of facade sample database, and realized the generation of wall height, shape and opening position. After the building sample database and the facade sample database are established, the villagers can choose the desired building scheme and the facade scheme and put them into the generated texture scheme, so as to realize the generation of the whole residential scheme.