Atelier Untitled Architects' community centre in the village of Guiyuan and Luobei area, just outside Shaoxing city in Zhejiang province, exemplifies a reengagement between architects and China's rural communities. During the past few decades, as China's urban economy has driven a mass migration from the agricultural folkways of the country towards industrial landscapes, architecture has been overwhelmingly oriented towards the construction of new cities; as China's economy cools and matures, architects are engaging in slower, more human-oriented work in the countryside, questioning Chinese cultural identity, how humans can live in harmony with nature, and what activities might take place in environments that remain rural. Many villages in China are half-abandoned, populated only by older people and the very young, but in the coastal provinces, rural economies are increasingly invigorated by traffic to and from cities, with architects like Wang Hao of Atelier Untitled Architects reviving communities that often host visitors from the cities on weekend breaks. The community centre for Luobei reclaims an old, forgotten building to house gardens, art galleries, low-key exercise facilities, tea rooms, roof gardens and work alcoves. Rebuilt in the skeleton of a former workers' barracks in 2018, local residents - many of whom are older people - use the centre to sing and play musical instruments, play ping-pong, and perform traditional rites such as bundling zongzi (rice dumplings) in bamboo leaves for the dragon boat festival, cultivating the human connectivity that daily interaction creates.
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