Strategies for Preserving and Revitalising a Fragile Territorial Reality: The Case of Ganyantoucun Rural Settlement in Hunan (China, XV Sec.)

The village of Ganyantou (干岩头村, Gān Yán Tóu Cūn) is located in the southern part of Hunan Province (People’s Republic of China), at the entrance of a deep valley where the Jingshui and Xianshui rivers meet. The six rural dwellings that make it up were erected in the traditional construction style from the fifteenth century onwards—i.e. in mixed-masonry stone and wooden carpentry. Local populations have always lived in a regime of substantial self-subsistence, dedicating themselves to agriculture, fishing and breeding. Centuries of these activities have shaped a unique cultural landscape in which human settlements, water management and soil modelling are closely related and perfectly harmonious. However, the development of the industrial sector first and then of the tertiary sector, flanked by the influence of the Great Cultural Revolution, has led to the progressive alteration of the relationship between urban and rural areas over time. My research deals with the problem of depopulation of rural settlements and settlement migration from the countryside to the cities. This phenomenon exacerbates the fragilities of territories undergoing abandonment and, at the same time, increases the already significant housing and social problems of urban centres resulting from overpopulation. Within this context, my purpose is to understand the socio-economic mechanisms underlying the survival of a settlement and to highlight the critical issues and potentialities intrinsic to the reality under analysis. The resulting project intervention aims to create the primary conditions for a dignified life in these places—i.e., to provide technical solutions for adapting the vernacular heritage to modern living standards—and to graft some new activities that can give a stable economic horizon to the inhabitants.