Mingrui Xie & Lulu Yao
2026
This Is Not My Home is what the elders in rural China felt when they were forced into renewed housing. Renewed housing is a product of local economic development promoted by the government, forcing rural residents to abandon their homes and land. It simply adapts the Western typology and mass-produces a space that lacks identity and agency. The research starts with an analysis of the lives of elders in rural villages of China. Their domestic life was active and highly autonomous. They actively shape their living environments and provoke an alternative answer to how domestic spaces are used.
Taking a step further to a specific site in Henan, China, the existing proposal showcases a standard framework of a renewed housing masterplan and a possible starting point for our redocumentation of renewed housing. Our action starts with a breaking of the existing programming structure. Rooms no longer belong to programs, but to the users. Houses are divided into private spaces for permanent residents, semi-private spaces for temporary residents, and public spaces for the community. Rooms with walls are replaced with elevated platforms, sliding doors, and curtains, allowing for negotiation of space. An inserted volume, following the demolition of the existing back façade of the house, creates another open platform. This flexible space can host collective activities and labor, making part of private property into a shared space. It also encourages the elders to actively move around the neighborhood to practice domestic rituals, such as cooking, laundry, crafting, and childcare.
In conclusion, the project asks the question: how can we return the authorship of a home to its residents, and turn what is not their home, to home.