Regional culture and architectural purpose. “Bamboo Branch Academy” is located in Yongjiang Village, Zhuhai Town, Changning County, Yibin, Sichuan Province, near the famous Shunan Bamboo Sea Scenic Area. The project, situated in a small village in Huangjuetan, Yongjiang Village, is surrounded by bamboo forests, paddy fields, vegetable fields, and hills. The Yujiang River is babbling in the west and the south, and Shunan Bamboo Sea in the north rolls like a large green screen. “Bamboo Branch Academy” was developed as China implemented the “rural revitalization” strategy. Mentally, its architectural purpose is to “develop the bamboo industry in accordance with local conditions, and landscape Sichuan villages with bamboo forests” and “make bamboo of Yibin an ecological gateway to introduce southern Sichuan to the world.” Physically, its architectural purpose is to build the Music Workshop under Bamboo, Paddy Field Academy, and Guild Hall for Buddhist Meditation.
Architectural imagery. The first visit was conducted in the late winter of January 2019. The village was wreathed in mist with all plants withered. Only the ducks playing in the paddy fields, dogs barking at strangers, and villagers strolling in the fields add to its vitality. Though quite bleak and desolate, it brought a rare sense of tranquility and leisure. We were impressed by the various images here – the bamboo-clad hills around the base, the mud walls covered with bamboo strips surrounding the dilapidated house, the grayish blue-tiled roof, and the plantain trees next to the old house. They are common in the countryside of Sichuan and hardly can leave a deep impression. We got excited upon seeing the bamboo forest by the river before leaving. Numerous bamboo shoots thrived with irresistible momentum, arising out of the canopy formed by mature bamboo towards the sky. A few had sprouted, reminding us of a bamboo-themed poem written by Zhang Zhengjian. It was in stark contrast with what we saw back in the village, which impressed us a lot. It reminded us of the motif of the project – “revitalization”, which can be linked up with such words and phrases as “prominence,” “getting rid of the stale and bringing forth the fresh,” and “prosperity of both the new and the old.”
