Located in Huadu District in Guangzhou, Gangtou Village is a 600-year old traditional rural village. This historically significant site includes well-preserved buildings dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republican Period. These artifacts include ancestral temples, ancient bridges, and houses, making it an "open-air museum of Lingnan architecture". Along with its rich history of producing academic scholars, Gangtou village seeks to reinvent itself as a destination for the arts, culture, and heritage.

With rapid urbanization rates, China is seeking new means to bridge the gap between the rural and urban population. However, the process of rural urbanization often erases the definition of what it means to be a rural villager. Agricultural land and villages are often wiped clean of all previous historic or cultural significance to make way for urbanization. In order to transition the gap between rural and urban, it is crucial to distill and safeguard the traditions and characteristics of the rural way of life in China. 

Learning from the commonly used dominant typology of the Sanheyuan and it’s embedded cultural and philosophical thinking behind it,  we extract the following underpinning characteristics: pavilions and canopies bound by exterior walls frame an introverted space,  the alternation between indoor and outdoor spaces, the extension of the exterior into the interior, private-public program organization, and the overall arrangement for expansion. Furthermore, respecting the region and surrounding context, local materials and traditional forms that are commonly found in Cantonese villages are selected and reinterpreted in a contemporary manner. In terms of material selection, the new building is constructed in concrete and clad with a grey brick facade, while the canopies, doors, and frames are clad in corten steel that mimics the color of the red bricks and clay roof tiles in neighboring buildings. Paying homage to the tradition of the site, the new building is constructed with a pitched roof form, with a silhouette of a pot ear style gable on the side walls.  The result is an architecture that is visually contemporary, yet conceptually deeply rooted in historic precedence. 

Gangtou Culture House seeks to invite scholars, artists, and visitors to come and learn about the unique Lingnan art and architecture. The Culture house includes an Exhibition Hall, Tea House, Learning Center, Retail, and Guesthouses. The combination of existing traditional buildings and new interventions results in a rich collection of spatial typologies hosting a mix of programs. The amalgamation of cultural, leisure, and educational programs, combined with public spaces of various scales will allow villagers to display their culture and share their way of life with visitors.