UNIT 5

The project establishes a community for Shanghai’s migrant ex-farmers.Shanghai is home to an increasing influx of ex-farmers who migrate from rural areas to the city. However, the current legislation of the Hukou system (China’s internal passport), a household registration system limits internal migration and only provides healthcare and education to nationals if they remain within the constraints of their Hukou passport. The Shanghai Ex-Farmers’ Clubhouse is based on the philanthropy of those ex -farmers ‘who made it’ in the city and will provide some of those services e.g. Health Centre. However, its main ambition is to cure the farmers’ longing for rural China: the smells, sounds and rural features, they left behind. The building takes the form of the pixelated rice paddy landscapes of east China. The project identifies moments such as walking through a flooded rice field in the morning or lantern festivals to deconstruct and use in the building to awaken memories in the ex-farmer. N.C.