Public square
Da Liu Zhai Cun, Han Chang’an, Shaanxi province, China, year 2010

The main public space of Da Liu Zhai Cun village is its central street. At the same time it is intensive truck road, garbage and construction waste dump and toilet. The implementation workshop was organized to find a way how in short period of time (3 days) with minimal expenses is possible to improve public space of the village. As a case study we chose a “street pocket,” a square that years ago was a meeting place for locals. At that time it was an outdoor cinema. We turned construction waste to Majiang game tables and chairs. Garbage piles we covered with nearby found bricks that were leftovers of building construction and created amphitheatre type seats / playground. Villagers gave us a pear tree that we planted as a symbol of continuity of new public place.
To encourage villagers to use their new public space we organized a movie night. One of the house walls we painted white to create a screen for movie projections. There was no need for any advertisement for the movie night. Curious locals did it for us and about 200 people of small village came to participate in the event. Although movie night was a great success the long term results of the workshop will be visible after few years.

Authors: Didzis Jaunzems, Sylvain Donadieu, Joâo Bermudes, Ann Helen Often Hassel, Bao Hangyuan, Zhen