Xihe Cereals and Oils Museum and Villagers’ Activity Center

This project is situated in Xihe Village, Xin County, Xinyang
city, Henan province, China. The village has a beautiful
environment. However, the village suffers from poor economy and
lack of vitality, most of residents still living here are left-behind
elders, children, it is a typical left-behind village.The aim of the
project is to repair the environmental, motivate vitality and revive
the economy of the village through good design.
The project construction funds from the government subsidy
and the villagers cooperatives. The construction was also mainly
down by the left-behind villagers themselves. The finished
building will be managed by the villagers. This project is more
like a public event, it prompts the villagers to stand together for
the village revitalization, at the same time, through collective
labor and industrial recovery, and the village can also find itself
again.
Architect also serves as the role of business planner. Combined
with local economic crops and the traditional technology, the
design team masterminded the product like organic tea oil and
Chinese chestnut for the Xihe Village, they also created the brand
“Xihe good oil”, and designed the logo for free. Reconstruction
of collective economy, guiding the villagers to management the
brand, it is an important part and starting point of the project.
The project is also trying to fix China's rural traditional organic
agriculture and handicrafts. Under the stylist’s proposal, villagers
had purchased and repaired the only remaining and, workable
oil squeeze (it has a history of 300 years) in local village, and this
hand oil process had been restored all over 30 years.
The completion Xihe cereals and oils museum and villagers’
activity center including: a tiny museum, a villager activity
centerand a restaurant. In the expectations, it will be a new
public place for Xihe village, and stimulating vitality of the village,
meanwhile, it will also pull the economy of village, reshape the
rural industry. Based on the result of application, those targets
has been reached basically.