Designing a pilot system for sustainable villages for all

Abstract

The rapid change of the Chinese society in the last 20 years, with the biggest urbanization process ever observed, the growing economic and social gap between the remaining rural population and the much more sophisticated resident of the large cities of the coastal area of the East, has been pushing the Chinese government to intervene with several policies aimed to reduce the west-east migration. However, the different policies designed with this aim are not yet reaching the desired impact and their implementations are often not focusing on the need to preserve also the cultural heritage of the Chinese countryside. This paper discusses the applied research on the points mentioned above, focusing on design solutions for a sustainable and innovative pilot system which promotes economic and ecological sustainability, social innovation and re-defines marginality through innovation within tradition.