The latest project of the DnA agency, the conversion of the Huangyan quarries, envisages the gradual reactivation of 20,000 m2 of unused spaces. The exhibition presents the development of these rock galleries, studies of the ecosystem that developed there and the dialogue with the community.
Exhibition in Arc in Rêve Architecture Center
from Thursday 25 April to Sunday 27 October 2024
inaugural conference
Xu Tiantian, architect DnA Design and Architecture
Thursday April 25, 2024 – 6:30 pm
During the last ten years, the name of Xu Tiantian has been associated with numerous infrastructure revitalization projects in rural areas of China. Approaching architecture as a lever for territorial development, the architect uses local traditions and know-how to trigger a new dynamic and revitalize the regional economy. In this long-term work, the transformation of a former quarry into a public space, in 2019, represented a significant point. 3,000 abandoned quarries remain to this day only in Jinyun county, a heritage with enormous potential for this Chinese hinterland deeply marked by the rural exodus and today looking for a new vocation.
As a result of this first restoration intervention, the project to convert the quarries of cut Huangyan in the city of Taizhou envisages the restitution to the community and the gradual reactivation of 20,000 m2 of unused spaces. Dedicated to this new project of the agency DnA, founded by Xu Tiantian in 2004, the exhibition of stone voids presents the arrangement of these rock galleries, the studies on the ecosystem that has developed there over the years and the dialogue with the local community established by the architect throughout the construction site.
The presentation of this very symbolic reconversion is also an opportunity to question the future of this industrial heritage on the spot: no less than 1,400 quarries have been registered in the Gironde in recent years.