Designing the Rural

Joshua Bolchover is an urban researcher, academic and architectural designer. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on understanding urban transformation in China. He exhibited his work, ‘Rural Urban Ecology’ at the Venice Biennale 2010. He is the author with John Lin of Rural Urban Framework: Transforming the Chinese Countryside (Birkhauser), 2014.John Lin is an architect based in Hong Kong and currently an Assistant Professor at The University of Hong Kong. His current projects include the design of several school buildings, a village community centre, a hospital and a sustainable house prototype in China. He was the overall winner of the Architectural Review’s House Award in 2012 for his “House For All Seasons” a rural house in Shaanxi Province, China.Christiane Lange is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture of the University of Hong Kong. She teaches Urban Design in the Bachelor and Master Program and works in the Community Project Workshop of the University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the urbanization process of developing countries.

• About the Guest-Editors 5 Introduction: Where is the Rural in an Urban World? 6Inventing the Rural: A Brief History of Modern Architecture in the Countryside 14Settling the Nomads: Rural Urban Framework, an Incremental Urban Strategy for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 20Indefinitely Intermediate: Processes of Ruralisation in Chisinau, Moldova 28Cultivating the Field in the Global Hinterland: Community Building for Mass Housing in the Amazon Region 34Palm Oil: A New Ethics of Visibility for the Production Landscape 42Notes on Villages as a Global Condition 48Fieldoffice Architects In Situ: Reflecting on the Rural–Urban Mix in Yilan, Taiwan 58In the Hands of the People: Harnessing the Collective Power of Village Life in India 66Designing for an Uncertain Future: Rural Urban Framework, Shichuang Village House Prototype, Guangdong Province, China 72The Hunstad Code: Rules for the Planning of a Rural Town 78The Villages, Florida: Small-town Metropolitanism and the ‘Middle of Nowhere’ 86New Territories: Deconstructing and Constructing Countryside – The Great Divide of Rural and Urban in Hong Kong 92The Toshka Project: Colossal Water Infrastructures, Biopolitics and Territory in Egypt 98Best of Both Worlds: Lamenting Our Path to the Future 106Durana, Albania: A Field of Possibilities 114The Hinterland, Urbanised? 118Counterpoint: Don’t Waste Your Time in the Countryside 128Contributors 134

"Yet again the AD team have produced a fascinating, thought-provoking, deep delve into the trends that are changing our environment and our ways of working." (theNBS.com, August 2016)