The design of a temple for the God of Wealth at Sun Township, Anhui, China by Fu Yingbin

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源起
The origin

太阳乡位于霍山县安徽大别山深处主峰白马尖的核心景区，为了服务旅游，政府原本委托我们设计的此处的广场和停车场，场地已经平整完毕只剩下此处财神庙待拆除，这类民间庙宇在当地乡间并不少见，因此拆除这样一处小庙也并未引起大家注意，现场调研时候我们发现这个小庙并不普通，这座庙已有近两百年历史，多次被毁和重建，庙虽不大却是当地村民的信仰中心，我们说服了甲方能在附近重建此庙，延续民间信仰的同时也能为游客提供一处有趣的互动设施。这处财神庙成了一个我们主动提出的设计之外的任务，我们希望通过这一处微小设施的设计，为淳朴的民间信仰提供一处精神承载空间，和有尊严的乡间信仰活动场所。 

Sun Township is located in the heart of the scenic area of Dabie mountain in Huoshan county, Anhui Province. To support travel industry, the local government had commissioned our team to design a square and a parking lot here, when the field engineering was almost finished, that only a small temple had not been tear down completely yet. Such a small temple for the God of Wealth is quite common in surrounding rural area, therefore the decision made to remove it had not cause attention at first. However, as the site investigation going deep, we found this temple special. It was nearly two hundred years-old, destroyed and rebuilt many times through history. Tiny as it was, the temple was a spiritual center of local villagers for centuries. We then convinced the client to rebuild this temple nearby, to continue local traditional beliefs as well as provide visitors an interesting interactive facility. In this way this temple became a self-proposed design task beyond the initial commission brief. We hope that through the design of this tiny facility, we can provide spiritual space for unsophisticated folk beliefs, and a dignified place for rural religious activities.

▼建成照片，Photo of completion

▼财神庙拆除前原状，Condition of the temple for God of Wealth before demolishing

方案
Proposal

新址被确定在在距离原址几十米处的一处山坳，三面背山，面朝广场，环境独立而幽静。新的财神庙不仅是一处信仰的精神场所，同时也需要服务游客和其他人士，增加其公共性和互动性是首先需要解决的问题。此类民间村庙通常是三面围合，空间狭窄闭塞，我们试图改变原有村庙内收的空间形态，引入“亭”做法，将外部打开，除了神龛必要的背景墙以外，改为四面通透，四周屋檐舒展挑出，创造出一个舒适而通透的檐下空间，以公共和开放的姿态展现在村民眼前。

The new site had been arranged in a ravine which is tens of meters away from the original site, backing mountains in three sides, facing the square, enjoying independent and peaceful environment. The new temple should not only act as a sacred place of folk beliefs, but also serve tourists and non-believers. The first problem to be solved is how to increase its publicity and interactivity. Such folk village temples used to be enclosed on three sides, ended up with narrow space. Considering the above, our design team tried to change the adducent spatial form of the former village temple, by introducing the form of a “pavilion”, opening the external. Expect the necessary background wall for the shrine, we released and opened the space all the way around, with the roof stretching out soothingly, to create a comfortable space of contemplation, showing an sharing and open image toward the villagers.

▼区位图，Location Plan

▼财神庙入口，Entrance of the Temple

▼引入“亭”做法，庙宇四面通透，更具公共性和开放性，an Open “Pavilion” for the Public

乡村营造往往收到技术和材料的限制，传统材料虽然看起来似乎符合某些审美和价值观，但由于造价和工人的匮乏未必是最好的选择，我们选择了最容易控制的混凝土浇筑建筑整体框架，邀请当地篾匠手编了竹席作为模板内衬，使混凝土有了竹席的肌理，原本冰冷现代的混凝土材料上留下了手艺的温度。墙体采用了红色空心砖，这种材料通常作为墙体填充砌块，一般不会展现在建筑最终的外饰面上，我们通过简单的角度转换，用空心砖直接砌筑墙体，砖的孔洞形成了一种纯粹的墙面肌理，后面的景物通过砖孔若隐若现，模糊了空间的边界。屋顶的方形开口增加了庙的宗教氛围，顶光每天会根据时间移动，并在特殊时间照到神像之上。

Rural construction often faced the limitation of technology and materials.  Although traditional material seems to meet certain aesthetics and values, its high cost and the shortage of skilled workers made it not the best choice. Therefore, we chose the most controllable in-situ concrete to construct the overall frame of the new temple, while inviting local bamboo craftsman to knit handmade bamboo woven mats as the lining of the construction molds, which gave the concrete a texture of bamboo mats. In this way we add to the cold modern material, concrete, the temperature of traditional craftmanship. For the walls of the rebuilt temple we applied red brick, which used to be filling blocks rather than presenting at the final exteriors. We transformed the usage of this common material by simply change their direction, directly used hollow bricks to structure the masonry wall. The brick holes formed an unalloyed texture, making the scenery behind partly hidden and partly visible, blurring the boundary of the space. The square-shape opening of the roof adds to the religious atmosphere of the temple. The light ray dropping from the top moves slowly through daytime and illumine the statue at specific moment.

▼庙宇内部，阳光可以通过屋顶的方形开口在特殊时间照到神像上，Interior of the Temple, sunlight could illumine the statue through the square opening on the roof at specific moment

▼墙体由红色空心砖砌筑而成，Walls made of Red Hollow Bricks

▼竹席模板混凝土，竹席模板由村里篾匠在编织而成，Concrete with bamboo mat texture, which weaved by local craftsman

在中国南方地区，水是财富的象征，许多民间建筑极为强调雨水在建筑中的作用，我们在处理屋顶排水的时候特意考虑了这一民间习俗，对雨水口做了特殊处理，借鉴了日本传统建筑中“雨链”这一设计，使雨水的排出成为一处生动有趣的景观，同时巧妙的隐喻了“财神庙”这一主题。

In south China region, water is a symbol of wealth. Many native buildings strongly emphasizes the role of rain in architecture. Thus in dealing with the roof drainage we especially considered this folk custom, did special treatment for the drainage system.Also inspired by the “rain chains”in Japanese traditional architecture, the design made rainwater discharge become a lively and interesting landscape, and a clever metaphor of “the God of Wealth”.

▼雨链，The rain chains

习俗
Custom

当地居民在财神庙祈福时候除了燃香，通常还要燃放爆竹，燃烧松枝和纸钱等习惯，政府考虑山林防火及环境污染希望我们在设计的时候能对村民习惯进行行为引导。村庙的空心砖墙成了新的祈福设施，人们把祈福语言写在红纸上以后卷起来插到墙上的空心砖孔里，随着时间的推移，墙上的砖孔会被红纸慢慢填满，建筑与使用者发生了紧密的联系并有了生长的过程，建筑本身与活动和信仰紧密的的结合在一起。敲钟是中国宗教场所中参与者非常喜爱的一种互动方式，场地下方我们设计了一处挂钟，人们从庙下来以后可以敲钟祈福，敲钟与填满红纸的祈福墙成了财神庙祈福的新活动，受到居民和游客的欢迎。

When praying at the temple, local residents not only burn incense, but also set off firecrackers, pine branches and paper money, etc. The government concerned the risk of mountain forest fire and environmental pollution, raised that if we could guide the behavior of villagers through design. The hollow brick wall of the temple became a new type of blessing facility, where people can roll up the red paper written with blessing words then put them into the hollow holes in the wall. With the passage of time, the brick wall holes slowly become filled up with red paper, connecting the construction with its users, and creating a process of growth. In this way, the building itself and the belief activities closely unifies together. Bell ringing is a very popular activity among the participants of religious affairs in China. Below the site, we designed a big bell. Thus people can ring for blessing after coming down from the temple. The ringing bell and the blessing wall become new hot spot of the temple for the God of Wealth, popular among both local residents and visitors.

▼祈福墙，The blessing wall

▼敲钟，Ringing bell

影响
Impact

这座本来非设计委托的“意外”项目建成后也取得了“意外”的效果，新建的财神庙保留和延续的村民的信仰中心，不仅继续成为村民祈福求财乡建信仰场所，更成为访客与村民交流互动空间，有了另外唯独的公共属性。新庙的外观的建造形式和新的祈福方式也刷新了居民对此类设施的认知，成为一处备受访客“瞩目”和“议论”的焦点，为民间信仰注入新的活力。

After the completion of this accidental project, which was not originally commissioned by the client, it also achieved unexpected effects. The new temple of wealth retained and continued the belief center of villagers, which not only continue to be a place for villagers to pray for wealth and luck, but also became an interaction place for visitors and villagers to communicate with each other, achieving unique public attributes. The appearance of the new temple and the new way of blessing also refreshed the residents’ understanding of these facilities, becoming a focus of attention and discussion by visitors, infusing new vitality to folk beliefs.

▼整体布局，Overall composition

▼轴测图，Axometric

▼剖面图，Section

项目地点：安徽省六安市霍山县
设计时间：2017.3
建成时间：2018.2
面积：20平米
设计单位：傅英斌工作室
主创设计师：傅英斌
团队：张浩然、蔡万成、闫璐
摄影：张虔希
邮箱：fuyingbin999@126.com

Project location: Huoshan county, Lu ‘an city, Anhui province
Design time: March 2017
Completion date: February 2018
Area: 20 square metres
Design organ: Fuyingbin Studio
Chief designer: Fu Yingbin
Team: Zhang Haoran, Cai Wancheng, Yan Lu
Photography: Zhang Qianx
Email address: fuyingbin999@126.com

More: Fu Yingbin on gooood