Miaoxia Village—Building a Sustainable Community

Team  Prof. Peter HASDELL  Prof. KU Hok Bun

School of Design | Department of Applied Social Sciences

In rural China, many scattered communities face challenges of isolation and limited economic opportunities. To change this, researchers from PolyU’s Department of Applied Social Sciences led by Prof Ku Hok Bun and School of Design led by Prof. Peter Hasdell (through Insitu Project) collaborated with local residents in Miaoxia village in Sichuan Province. They co-created a Community Kitchen and Guesthouse to unlock new economic and social solutions for community revitalization and greater community cohesion and resilience. The approach combined social design approaches with Action Research to create new ‘software’ (social enterprises, new community groups) and Participatory Design to develop new ‘hardware’ (new buildings, improved infrastructure) through protracted engagement with villagers.

In 2016 the Community Kitchen enabled new cooperative opportunities for residents, followed by the Community Guesthouse and an Eco-garden (with waste treatment facility) in 2018. This resulted in two villager-run social enterprises helping villagers learn new skills, diversify income sources, and self-organise. Over the past years, over HK$96K of new community income has been generated, supporting community education and healthcare for all 150 villagers. This project’s success has led to further rural community revitalization projects in nine other villages, bringing social and economic benefits to over 2000 villagers; developing new prototypes and proof-of-concept methods in placemaking, material circularity, and community capacity. They facilitated changes towards sustainable development, increased resilience, and social innovation in the community.

Attracting both academic and media attention, the project won an Azure Magazine prize for social good in 2018 and was featured in Lonely Planet and Designboom. For RAE2020, the project achieved a four-star rating (the highest) impact case study for the School of Design, authored by Prof. Hasdell.

RAE 2020 Impact Case Study