In-situ Project builds a Museum of Everyday Life and a School for Handicrafts for the Dong minority in Hunan

The Museum of Everyday Life and a School for Handicrafts completed in 2019 is a result of research based design project conducted by In-situ Project run by Kuo Jze Yi and Peter Hasdell, with project assistants Xing Xiao Bao, Liang Cheng Quan, in a collaboration between PolyU School of Design, Shenzhen University School of Architecture and the Lvgeng Social Work Development Center. The facility for the Dong minority community (also known as the Kam people 侗族) is situated in the Dong Lei village, in Hunan Province in China.

In spring 2019, the village community decided to initiate a Community Cultural Classroom. The project aimed to exhibit local artifacts and their history, whilst hosting story telling events and organising cultural exchange events for visitors and tourists. In-situ Project with Lvgeng worked with villagers in a participatory design process employing a series of co-design workshops and community engagement events. These coordinated and integrated design processes including: the registration of local crafting techniques with the elderly village women-folk; artifact use and crafting documentation and book design with 10 village youths who interviewed and documented stories from the villager elders; exhibition method and design with the elder woman-folk of the village; and donation of timber and coordination of elder village men-folk and carpenters in the building of the Museum of Everyday Life and a School for Handicrafts in the existing village hall.

The key achievement of the project was to encourage villagers’ participation on many levels, aiding the village cohesion and integration across gender and generation. The development of locally run programmes for the Community Cultural Classroom, enables villagers to strengthen their local culture and the uniqueness of Donglei village. 

Some of In-situ Project’s other works can be found on Instagram.

Credits 

Participating Villagers:

石友浓、杨彦盛、吴友花、莫换引、杨凡芝、吴永丰、莫婄少、吴跃海、杨行花、杨田引、 石婄花、杨祥鸾、杨秀雄、莫香美、莫庵鸾、杨鸾爱、杨先引、石平安、杨云凤、杨浓恋、 莫平妹、杨成妹、莫婄花、杨祥故、杨昌生、杨笑枝、吴坤兰、姚翠春、杨凡花、杨引兰、 杨婄浓、吴婄小、龙婄红、杨奉军、吴秀引、杨鲜花 粟开凡、吴祥林、吴远松、杨行岩、莫婄艳

Carpentry Masters:

石平生、杨行岩 

Social Worker:

Lvgeng Social Work (杨菁、刘云、杨孟枝、甘传) 

Design Team:

In-situ Project (Xing Xiao Bao, Liang Cheng Quan, Kuo Jze Yi, Peter Hasdell), Shenzhen University School of Architecture and Urban Planning and PolyU School of Design 

Funding Support:

Huaihua Civil Affairs Breau “Three District Plan” (三区计划)