ZSYZ Studio: Longji Village is one of the volcanic stone villages in the north of Hainan. Located along the hill, Tongde Hall and Jiangxing Ancestral Hall were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasty in the form of Shiheyuan, featuring the lifting beam structure of timber and volcanic stone. The plaque on the front gate of Tongde Hall was inscribed by Zhang Yuesong, the advanced scholar called ”Jinshi” in the Qing Dynasty.

Only a little more than a ruin, the two separate ancestral halls have nearly no roof above and only some broken walls left. They have obviously lost the high-status dignity submerged in the crowded concrete houses.

We have tried to repair it as old as before, and spent a lot of time and energy on high-accuracy mapping, crafts verifying and 3D restoration modeling, but the results are not as expected. From the 3D restoration model,  we can see the inner space was coarse and gloomy due to the limited technique of processing big thick lava stones and making openings on the envelope of the masonry structure, despite the hard efforts of the ancestors on constructing with local materials when they just arrived on the island. If it is repaired as old as before , will it adapt to the new village that has developed rapidly in urbanization? Can the limited time and budget meet up the demands? Why not retaining the beauty of vicissitudes rather than hasty and rough repairing that may produce artificial irreversible damages to it? The strategy of building a protection for the ruins may be more appropriate for this project.

▼原状 Site Conditions