At Xingfu Ridge, Weibing Liu worked with local residents to make earth bricks for a guesthouse cluster beside Xingfu Ancient Village. Small buildings follow the hillside, while a wastewater system combines anaerobic treatment with a constructed wetland.
Xingfu Ridge in its hillside setting. Photography: Arch-Exist.
Concept sketch
Settlement and landscape
The concept sketch brings pitched-roof buildings, paths and vegetation into a shared hillside setting.
It provides a spatial introduction to the project’s work with local earth bricks, resident participation and wastewater treatment within the landscape.
Xingfu Ridge, concept sketch. Studio project archive.
Place & scale
At the scale of the village
The buildings form a cluster of smaller volumes along the hillside. Their scale extends that of the neighbouring village and connects the guesthouses with the existing settlement.
Courtyards and paths connect the buildings within the landscape. Local earth bricks link their construction with the work of residents who helped produce them.
Courtyards, paths and people. Photography: Arch-Exist.
Local materials & collaboration
Local earth, made together
Local residents took part in producing the earth bricks.
The earth bricks form part of a hybrid wall assembly, connecting local material choices with the wider construction of the guesthouse cluster.
Making with residents
Making earth bricks with local residents. Studio project archive.
Material detail
Earth bricks, material detail. Photography: Weibing Liu.
People & process
Participation through making
Residents participated in producing the earth bricks used in the guesthouse cluster. Local sourcing and participation connect the material with the people involved in construction.
Earth bricks are used within a hybrid wall assembly. The close view records the individual shapes and textured surfaces of the stacked bricks.
Wastewater & landscape
Treatment within the landscape
The wastewater system combines anaerobic treatment with a horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetland. The project diagram records the sequence from domestic wastewater collection to the outlet system and onward flow into the local pipe network.
Site photographs connect the diagram with the treatment area, planted wetland and outlet collection channel.
System sequence
English sequence based on the project diagram
01
Collection inlet
Domestic wastewater
02
Septic tank
03
Equalisation tank
With screen
04
Anaerobic system
05
Constructed wetland
Horizontal subsurface flow
06
Outlet system
Ornamental-fish channel; onward flow to the local pipe network
From the project archive
Project diagram
The original diagram records the system sequence, including collection, tanks, the anaerobic system, the constructed wetland and the outlet.
Original project diagram. Studio project archive.
Showing the project diagram.
Wastewater treatment site. Photography: Weibing Liu.Constructed wetland and outlet collection channel. Studio project archive.
Circularity & continuity
Local resources, shared knowledge
The concept sketch introduces the relationships between buildings, paths and the hillside. In construction, earth bricks made with residents connect material choices with shared knowledge. Alongside this work, anaerobic treatment and a constructed wetland address wastewater within the landscape.