synergetic expressions (2020)
harvard gsd option studio
spring 2020
instructor: kathryn firth, elaine kwong & david rubin
in collaboration with vicky chen & benjamin keller
The studio explored tourism as a catalyst for rural revitalization in Taishan, China. The aim was to support existing social capital while stimulating new development through stakeholder collaboration and local empowerment. The project demands strategies to incentivize returning migrants and small to medium-scale entrepreneurs to settle in rural areas that provide an alternative lifestyle for economic and social mobility. Within rural revitalization, thematic tension is considered: heritage and development. The challenge in defining what heritage is in an urbanizing rural context and how heritage is inherited and integrated into future developments will be of central importance.