Lines of Continuity

Perched on the terraced slopes of Shanlong, a centuries-old village once silenced by decline, a new form now rises—an architecture that neither replaces nor replicates, but renews. The project reimagines four humble homesteads once divided by terrain and time, weaving them into a single architectural continuum that feels both ancient and startlingly contemporary. What defines its ingenuity is not the scale, but the precision of reinvention: a continuous variable-rise, variable-constraint woven timber arch—China’s first of its kind—spanning uneven depths without disturbing the mountain’s natural rhythm.

Replacing the conventional four-post, seven-purlin framework with a two-post, seven-crossbeam timber lattice, the design dissolves interior boundaries, creating column-free volumes that breathe with light and air. The roof undulates like flowing silk, its curvature echoing the contours of the valley while transforming constraint into expression. Inside, the woven timber arches—handcrafted by master carpenters and intangible heritage inheritors—stand exposed, their interlocking members forming a dialogue between precision and poetry.

Material is memory here. Stones from fallen walls anchor the new foundation; earth once compacted by generations is recomposed into new rammed-earth walls; tiles are fired in nearby kilns and laid by local hands. The structure, at once tactile and weightless, captures the essence of craft in motion—renewing tradition through evolution rather than imitation. At dusk, warm light filters through U-shaped glass ribbons, tracing the gentle rise of the roof against the mountain’s darkened spine.

In its quiet brilliance, the architecture redefines what rural heritage can be: not a relic to preserve, but a living terrain where culture, craft, and innovation coexist. It stands as a manifesto for Asia’s mountainous villages—proof that even within the narrowest of footprints, the human imagination can find space to expand, adapt, and soar.