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RS1: The Lithium Triangle

Yanru Deng

Yanru started her design journey with an interior design background at her undergraduate stage. After that, she studied at the Royal College of Art for MA in Environmental Architecture. During this period, she learned to look at the environment from a sustainable perspective, not limited to the indoor space itself. At the same time, Yanru has a strong passion for traditional cultures and heritage protection. From term 3 to 4, her research project is to inherit Chongming homespun cloth in a way that makes the environment sustainable.

Education:

MA Royal College of Art Environmental Architecture (2019-2020)

BA East China Normal University(ECNU) (2015-2019)

Professional Experience:

Intern, interior design, Hassell Studio in Shanghai 2020

Intern, interior design, Greatdragon International Design 2019

Contact

ku.ca.acr.krowten@gned.urnay

Degree Details

School of Architecture

RS1: The Lithium Triangle

Working in the Lithium studio is a very memorable experience for me. With the Lithium Triangle as the background, we chose Huatacondo and Tulor- Beter, the two villages in Chile to do research and data analysis. Then at the beginning of the second semester, we went to the Atacama Desert in Chile for a two-week field trip to go to the local area to take pictures and record the local environment and interview local people, after the field trip, we have learned about Tulor, the small village in the Atacama we have visited always threatened by floods, so our group tries to propose a plan to prevent the flood in Tulor. During this learning process, I not only learned different research methods but also deepened my understanding of “Environmental Architecture' For my personal project, “the design of Chongming homespun Cooperative”, I have implemented my understanding of environmental architecture, “when natural living processes and cultural and social processes combine, a truly environmental architecture may arise. ”In order to make me explore the relationship deeply, I propose to develop the project, “Chongming homespun cloth cooperative'', - which consists of organic cotton planting, local communities, and local women - as a testing ground, and to improve the sustainable local environment, offer more job opportunities to local women and pass on Chongming homespun.

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Mainly using Chongming homespun as an intermediary to express my feelings of missing my great grandmother who has passed away. I sewed the homespun textile preserved by my great grandmother with the first piece of clothing I bought in London and used multiple sewing methods to convey different meanings, and finally recorded the process of sewing by myself. In the video, you can also see the process of weaving Chongming homespun. This work inspired my concept for the design of the Chongming homespun Cooperative in my final personal project,” the design of Chongming homespun cooperative”.

Medium:

Cloth, Chongming homespun

Size:

11/2019-02/2020

The location of Chongming island

The location of Chongming island

The water systerm in Chongming island

The land use in Chongming island

The history of Chongming homespun

The map of Weixing village

The pictures of local area

I did a series of research about Chongming Island. In terms of the geographical environment, I investigated the land use, water system, rural and urban distribution of Chongming Island. In terms of culture, I investigated the history of Chongming homespun. Here are some photos of the production process of Chongming homespun and the types of vegetation dyes. I chose the Wei Xing village in Xiang Hua Town as my site because it was one of the most prosperous villages of homespun fabrics at that time. Some local villagers still keep the Chong Ming homespun weaving skill there. I went to the local area for a field trip to research the local water system and the distribution of farmland. Some local houses still retain some characteristics of Chongming local cloth. The local female employment rate is low. There are about 200 women in the village who are unemployed. I also interviewed some local women, including the elderly who are nearly 80 years old and still weaving homespun cloth, and there is the leader of the local Chongming homespun inheritance organization. At the same time, they all expressed their desire to inherit the local cloth.

Medium:

Digital images, map

Size:

04/2020-12/2020

The organic cotton ecological systerm

The site situation before design

The site situation after design

I chose the dry land almost 200mu (1 mu=666 square meters) in Wei Xing village as my testing ground, because this kind of land is suitable for organic cotton planting. I analyzed the local advantages and disadvantages and proposed a series of solutions. The good point is that there is a sheep farm, which can provide enough source of organic fertilizers for organic cotton and also have some abundant houses for the construction of cooperatives. However, the bad sides are there is no reasonable green planting on the riverbank, and the farmland is directly close to the river. this dry land in this site is fragmented, and the drains are aging and blocked and need to be adjusted and connected. This map shows my proposal, first, I propose to use the methods of crop rotation and intercropping, you can see in this picture, organic cotton is rotated with some original crop like wheat and corn and intercropped with green manure. This picture shows the organic cotton ecological planting system in the area.

Medium:

Digital images,map

The organic cotton harvesting season

Dying and drying cloth

ChongMing homespun fashion show

The construction of Chongming Native Cloth Production cooperative and Education Base is the other important decision in my proposal. For the concept of the shape, I reference the other settlements, which are mainly circular, such as courtyards and earth buildings in China. The location selection is close to the planned organic cotton field, which is currently composed of four abandoned warehouses and a two-story residential building, covering an area of about 10,000 square meters and a building area of about 3,000 square meters. The plan is to be constructed under the joint support of the local cloth inheritance organization and the government, which can provide employment opportunities for nearly 200 local unemployed women. In this way, to establish the relationship between local women and organic cotton.

Medium:

Digital images, map

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