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Architects: Studio 10
- Area: 843 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Arch Nango, Chao Zhang
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Lead Architects: Shi Zhou
Text description provided by the architects. The Yangbei Village CCP Elderly Day-Care Center is located in the Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County of Shaoguan City, northern Guangdong. Nestled among mountains and abundant waterways, Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County is home to the Yao and Hakka people, known for their rich historic and cultural heritage and mountain settlements. With rural revitalization efforts, many Yao residents have moved to new public housing on the plains, though some elderly remain in traditional mountain villages, maintaining buildings with rammed-earth and timber structures. The Hakka population, primarily engaged in agriculture in the plains, contributes to the area's diverse cultural landscape.
Economically, the northern Guangdong mountainous region, including Ruyuan, has been a focus for rural revitalization and poverty alleviation. The project in Yangbei Village, a Hakka community split by the S250 highway and near the Xinjie River, is a strategic part of the "Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County Multi-Town Rural Revitalization Belt".
During the research phase, we observed how the region's architectural style blends its multicultural heritage with adaptations to its hot, humid, and mountainous climate.Local architecture, including Yao villages, Hakka residences, and modern buildings, often features colonnades or verandas, creating popular semi-outdoor "gray spaces" for public use during inclement weather. However, Yangbei Village lacks these covered public areas. The village population is predominantly elderly and children of migrant workers, with younger adults working in urban areas and returning only on holidays. The CCP Center in the village provides a comprehensive daycare facility for the elderly, complete with living quarters, bathrooms, a clinic, activity room, and canteen, catering to both daily needs and long-term care of the community's elderly.
The site's original closed courtyard, framed by temporary structures with overhanging eaves, was reimagined to prioritize openness and accessibility. We preserved the courtyard-style layout and mature trees while introducing multiple new entrances and a semi-outdoor veranda along the inter-province highway to improve visibility and access. This arrangement promotes a welcoming, public space, connecting the courtyard to the village through strategic pedestrian pathways.
The ground floor includes multiple pedestrian entrances and visual corridors. Along the provincial road, a semi-outdoor veranda opens the inner courtyard, enhancing visibility and accessibility for villagers. A secondary entrance near the northeast corner beside the stairwell links to a main village road, allowing eastern villagers to view and access the courtyard's greenery and activities. Verandas and covered walkways encircle the courtyard, creating a comprehensive public arcade that connects all entrances and facilitates community engagement.
Public services, elderly daycare, and office spaces are strategically arranged around the original courtyard layout. The addition of a unifying overhanging eaves structure ties together the variously sized volumes, introducing cohesiveness to the architecture. The overhang forms semi-outdoor "gray spaces" on the ground level, while the space above accommodates rooftop gardens and public activity areas on the second floor. The ground floor's north wing is dedicated to elderly living quarters, featuring courtyard-facing windows for optimal southern light and cross ventilation. On the south, a multi-purpose room and a public service hall cater to high pedestrian traffic and provide both courtyard and roadside entrances, enhancing public accessibility. The east side links these facilities with daycare and shared public services, bridging the north and south wings.
The second floor primarily accommodates offices, enhanced by a skylight tower and sloped roof of the ground-level public service hall that form a "theater" seating area on the southern terrace, using the corridor's hollow brick screen wall as a backdrop, and as a response to the local mountainous terrain. A separate steel staircase provides direct external access to the terrace, improving accessibility for villagers and minimizing disruptions to elderly services in the inner courtyard.
Reflecting local architectural styles, which typically feature planted porches, rooftops, and terraces, the second floor also includes three semi-outdoor balconies strategically located for relaxation and gardening. Additionally, a planter runs along the edge of the courtyard, aiding drainage and contributing to its greenery. A skylight tower, positioned at the southwest corner of the public service hall, marks the project's highest point and enhances its visibility along the bustling S250 provincial highway. This tower's design incorporates windows inspired by Yao tribal totems, crafting a play of light and shadow inside.
To maintain privacy given its proximity to residential buildings, the building's large windows and doors are oriented towards the inner courtyard. The exterior façade features vintage embossed glass windows, which echo the style of traditional local wooden windows. The building façade utilizes earth-toned stucco to distinguish its varied individual volumes from the unifying modern concrete slab addition that covers the public activity and circulation areas. This design resonates with the rammed earth walls typical of Yao village homes. Additionally, the strategic use of hollow bricks for louvers and visual partitions maintains the area's architectural tradition of decorative hollow bricks.
