Chetian Cultural Center, located at the heart of Chetian Village, is a public cultural building that integrates exhibition, training, and the exchange of traditional handicrafts. The adjacent plaza, also part of the project, provides an open space for villagers to gather, celebrate festivals, and host wedding performances, creating a new center for communal life in the village. The project aims to preserve Chetian’s distinctive stone architecture and craftsmanship traditions while emphasizing sustainability and ecological protection. The building is constructed from locally sourced bluestone—a durable, untreated material that ensures low maintenance and a long lifespan. Adhering to low-carbon principles, the entire construction process relied on manual quarrying, short-distance transport, and hand-built masonry, avoiding the use of large-scale machinery.

Inspired by the traditional “stone courtyard and narrow alley” system, the design integrates improved construction techniques to achieve energy efficiency. Approximately 60% of the stones were hand-quarried from a 400-year-old quarry at the village entrance, while the remaining 40% were recycled from abandoned stone houses. Responding to the region’s humid and foggy climate, the building adopts a porous layout with three large open courtyards at its core, ensuring natural ventilation and daylighting, complemented by colored skylights that bring brightness and seasonal variation to the interiors. Restrooms are concentrated on the ground floor with a separate entrance serving both the plaza and villagers; wastewater is treated through a small purification system and reused for irrigating nearby farmland, forming an ecological loop.

Over three years of construction, multiple teams of craftsmen collaborated using varied masonry methods, with each stone carrying the memory of its extraction, shaping, and placement. The building stands not only as a functional space but also as a symbolic monument—a vessel for exhibiting and transmitting the cultural heritage of the village. As a new contemporary landmark, Chetian Cultural Center integrates humbly into the village fabric, extending the legacy of local stone culture and becoming a spiritual hub that unites the community and renews its collective identity.