Study on Village Renovation Planning and Design Oriented by"Endogenous Development"——A Case Study of Zengjia Village, Guangchang County, Fuzhou City

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College of Fine Art, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China

Abstract Through the discussion of the current new rural construction issues, this paper points out a new development idea for the traditional rural construction. We should tap the local resources, stimulate the internal motivation of the village, emphasize the villagers as the main body, leading the village development-oriented renovation planning and design. With regard to the construction of "endogenous development" system, this paper discusses it from five perspectives: ecology, economy, culture, space and society. And combined with the planning and design practice of Zengjia Village, Guangchang County, Fuzhou City, we carry out renovation planning and design of the village from six aspects ("personal in-home interview" for current situation investigation; village spatial control and development planning; guidance for the dominant and diversified development of industry; the actual space environment renovation suitable for the village; continuation of the traditional culture to enhance the village look; enhancement of the participation of villagers in the whole process). It is pointed out that village renovation should not only stay in the improvement of the material environment, but also place greater emphasis on guiding the subjective initiative of the villagers, stimulate the endogenous power of the village, strengthen and guide the villagers’ self-governance, and promote the sustainable development of village construction.

Key words Endogenous development, Village renovation, Villager self-governance, Sustainable development

1 Introduction

In September 2005, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued theGuidanceonVillageRenovation, which put forward the need to improve the most basic production and living conditions and human settlements in rural areas in accordance with the requirements of building a harmonious society and building a conservation-oriented society[1]. In October 2005, theProposaloftheCPCCentralCommitteeonFormulatingtheEleventhFive-YearPlan, adopted by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee, put forward the strategic plan for building a new socialist countryside. It is pointed out that it is necessary to promote the construction of a new socialist countryside, do a good job in the planning of rural construction, economize and intensively use land in a down-to-earth and steady manner in accordance with the requirements of "production development, easy livelihood, civilized township style, neat village appearance, and democratic management"[2]. On October 11, 2006, theDecisionoftheCentralCommitteeoftheCommunistPartyofChinaonSomeImportantIssuesofBuildingaHarmoniousSocialistSocietyonce again proposed "promoting the construction of a new socialist countryside in a down-to-earth manner and promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural areas"[3]. Village renovation is one of the main measures to build a new socialist countryside, and it is the only way to solve the problems of "agriculture, countryside and farmers" and to promote the coordinated development of production, life and ecology in rural areas. In such a large background, local governments and relevant scholars have carried out village construction and renovation practice and theoretical research from different angles, to a certain extent, accelerating the pace of new rural construction. At the same time, it has also achieved good results, but there are some problems in practical operation and organizational management. It comes down to the following four points: first, most local governments take the superior examination content as the core, pursue the vanity project which claims to change the village appearance in a short period of time, lacking the attention to the local farmer’s real demand; second, most of the current village renovation planning is to copy the urban planning model, ignoring the endogenous logic of the village, and it is difficult to implement and meet the production needs and living habits of the countryside; third, government officials and planners have become the masters of village development, lacking communication with farmers, ignoring the main position of villagers in the village development; fourth, the village in the process of development is overly dependent on the promotion of external forces, ignoring the cultivation of internal forces to promote the sustainable development of the village. Then "endogenous development" is, on the basis of protecting ecology and culture, to let the villagers return to the main position of village development, fully tap local resources, activate the internal power of the village, and fundamentally improve the living standards in rural areas. It is a very important issue to make full use of a variety of resources in village renovation planning, draw on external forces to catalyze the internal forces of the village, fully mobilize the subjective initiative of the villagers, and cultivate the self-organization ability of village development. Based on the practice of Zengjia village renovation planning and design in Guangchang County, Fuzhou City, this paper discusses the feasibility of "endogenous development" of village construction in promoting the sustainable development of new socialist countryside construction.

2 Constructing the internal support system of"endogenous development"

The core content of "endogenous development" is to rely on the subjective initiative of local villagers and the use of local culture and resources to achieve regional sustainable development on the basis of the protection of ecology and culture (Table 1). Based on the above ideas, we will construct the internal support system of "endogenous development" from five perspectives: from the ecological point of view, it is analyzed as "ecological suitability evaluation and the construction of a safe rural ecosystem"; from the economic point of view, it is analyzed as "exploiting local resources to guide the dominant and diversified development of industry"; from the spatial perspective, it is analyzed as "economical and practical space environment renovation based on the life of farmers"; from the perspective of culture, it is analyzed as "continuing the traditional culture and improving the overall style of the village"; from the social perspective, it is analyzed as "changing the role of villagers and strengthening the participation of villagers in the whole process".

Table1Differencesbetweenendogenousandexogenousdevelopment

ProjectExogenous development Endogenous development Driving forceGovernment pushLocal consensus generationMechanismTop-downDown-topPrinciple of developmentRapid economic developmentCoordinated development of na-ture, economy and societySource of fundsPolicy subsidyLocal free accumulationDevelopment leaderOutsiderLocal farmersBenefit distributionFlow of operating interests to the outsideLocals distribute most of the proceeds

2.1Ecologicalperspective:ecologicalsuitabilityassessmentandconstructionofasaferuralecosystemVillage, as the basic unit of human living environment, has experienced a long period of development and evolution, and has become an integral part of the natural ecosystem. The safety and suitability for village location is the primary consideration. Therefore, the primary task in the planning and design of village renovation is to evaluate the ecological suitability and security of the natural ecosystem of village space. In accordance with the green and low-carbon concept, there is a need to build a safe, ecological village pattern. For village space, topography and geomorphology, geological disasters, basic forest land, farmland, water resources and water source protection, natural landscape are taken as ecological evaluation factors for sharing weighted superposition, and scientific determination of ecological security sensitive areas. According to the different degree of sensitive evaluation, the control and development of village space are guided. The highly sensitive ecological areas are divided into prohibited construction areas, allowing no development and construction activities; the commonly sensitive areas are divided into moderate construction areas, allowing small-scale development and construction; the fragile ecologically sensitive areas are divided into adaptive construction areas, priority can be given to the development of village construction land.

2.2Economicperspective:exploitinglocalresourcestoguidethedominantanddiversifieddevelopmentofindustries

This paper investigates the existing industrial foundation, resource characteristics and location conditions of the village, and exploits and makes use of it to cultivate the dominant industrial chain, so as to make the village form the path of endogenous self-creation. On the one hand, through the replacement of some homestead and the centralized integration of some scattered small pieces of farmland, the original small-scale agricultural planting methods have been changed. It adopts engineering and technical means to carry out efficient production of animals and plants, speed up the development of agriculture, and cultivate modern agricultural production areas. On the other hand, the cultural resources and natural landscape resources owned by the village are effectively developed and utilized to develop tourism around the city. This paper makes an investigation and analysis on the production and life style of farmers, exploits the tourism resources, and takes the "rurality" of the natural and original nature as the characteristic of tourism. It is mainly carried out from the following three aspects: first of all, it is the experience function, with crop farming, agricultural products picking for farming life experience; secondly, it is the function of leisure and sightseeing, with the unique rural landscape and style for sightseeing; finally, it is the leisure and vacation function, the buildings with cultural connotation in the village are transformed into residential accommodation, which provides tourists with the function of food, accommodation and development of leisure and vacation.

2.3Spatialperspective:economicalandpracticalspaceenvironmentrenovationbasedonthelifeoffarmersVillagers are the main body of village development, village environmental renovation should focus on the actual living needs of farmers, with economy, applicability as the basic principle. The appearance of the village and the landscape design of the environment in the village should be closely related to the production needs and daily life of the farmers, reflecting the original rural landscape and style. Impractical overdesign caused by copying the experience and theory of urban construction should be avoided. Only the space that meets the needs of farmers’ life and production can make a village more cohesive and full of vitality. At the same time, the village renovation planning should not only stay in the "vanity project" of government departments. More attention should be paid to the improvement of infrastructure such as roads, drainage, electricity and sanitation in the village, so as to improve the living standards of the villagers in an all-round way, so that the villagers can have a sense of identity and happiness to their hometown.

2.4Culturalperspective:continuationoftraditionalcultureandpromotionoftheoverallstyleofthevillageThe spatial form of each village will be restricted by different geographical environment, and show differences and diversity. Therefore, in the village environmental renovation, we should fully consider the natural environment factors and respect the traditional spatial texture. The broken traditional architecture should be repaired, to continue the culture, innovate the spatial pattern, and shape the architectural style with regional characteristics, so that it does not lose the cultural style of the past architecture and has the function of modern architecture.

2.5Socialperspective:changingtheroleofvillagersandstrengtheningtheirparticipationinthewholeprocessThe village is the place where the villagers live for a long time, and the environmental renovation planning of the village is a long-term plan for the village. The government and the designer are the "short-term participants" in the whole plan, while the villagers are the "long-term habitants". Therefore, we should pay more attention to the main position of the villagers in the village development, fully respect the villagers’ choice of village development, and widely solicit the villagers’ suggestions. More villagers should be able to participate in the decision-making process, so that village renovation can be in line with the needs of village development. As outsiders, planners and government should provide strategies for village renovation and provide valuable technical solutions for village planning and construction. By changing the villagers from "bystander" to "master" and participating in the village renovation planning as the leader, we can find more accurately the problems that need to be solved urgently in the development and construction of the village, and the planning is more operable. By establishing the responsibility of the villagers for the environmental renovation of the village, the system of villagers’ self-governance is formed, and the village is promoted to the road of "endogenous development".

3 Village renovation planning and design oriented by"endogenous development"

3.1BasicsituationofZengjiaVillage,GuangchangCounty,FuzhouCityZengjia Village is located in Guangchang County, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province, adjacent to the national highway to the west, only 5 km from the town, with convenient traffic conditions. There are 6 groups of villagers in the village, a total of 516 households, the village industry is dominated by planting lotus, and rice. There is a large area of lotus pond on the west side of the village and a red revolution exhibition hall is planned on the east side. The buildings in the village have brick-concrete structures with 1-2 stories, most of which have tile roofs, and the construction quality is good. In recent years, due to the support of the national policy for the construction of the new countryside, rural drinking water project, road hardening and other aspects have improved. But there are still many problems with the village environment: first, only the main roads in the village are hardened, and the roadway is still dominated by soil roads (Fig.1); second, the space in front of the house and behind the house is lacking in management, the space is basically abandoned, and the agricultural tools are stacked in disorder; third, most of the new or rebuilt buildings have white tile veneer, the traditional dwellings are less preserved; fourth, some buildings are uninhabited and empty for a long time, and the village construction land cannot be effectively used. Then the main reason for the above problems is that the "endogenous development" model in the village has not been formed, and the path of endogenous self-creation has not been established. For the traditional "exogenous development", it can effectively improve the living conditions of the villagers in the short term. However, this kind of renovation mode, which is too dependent on the outside capital input, is unsustainable, and it is difficult to change the excessive dependence of village development on the outside world and the situation of too little farmers’ economic income. Therefore, in the process of Zengjia village renovation planning and design, this paper discusses how to use external resources to guide villages to the "endogenous development" road.

Fig.1Soilroads

3.2"In-homeinterview"forinvestigationonthecurrentsituationInvestigation and analysis should be done before the village renovation is carried out. In order to have a better understanding of the law of the development of the village and avoid roughly taking pictures for investigation, the village architecture, roads, public space, landscape, sports facilities, infrastructure construction and industrial development should be investigated. At the same time, planners also need to enter the village, to have a certain understanding of the daily life and production habits of the villagers. And they have to carry out the "in-home interview" and the questionnaire survey on the villagers, to investigate the villagers’ demands for the future development of the village, and collate the investigation data into a special investigation report, the villagers’ basic information files and the villagers’ daily activities table.

Fig.2Currentsituationinvestigation

3.2.1"In-home interview" for investigation. In village renovation, in order to meet the living needs of the villagers, planners enter the village to carry out investigation and analysis, visit each household and carry out a questionnaire survey on the villagers’ age composition, family income, main income sources, the situation of migrant workers, the situation of children and the demand for future development of the village (Fig.2). The following problems are summarized from the research: first, the villagers’ income mainly comes from going out to work and agricultural planting by themselves; second, the resident population in the village is mainly the elderly and children, most of the young and middle-aged go out to work; third, the development of the industrial level of the surrounding counties and towns is relatively slow, the villagers have not completely separated from agricultural production, staying in the state of "both workers and farmers"; fourth, the villagers have a strong demand for the construction of infrastructure and sports facilities in the village.

3.2.2Basic information of villagers. The in-home interview for investigation is based on the household as the basic unit. The name of each family member, family composition, age, income, the building area of the homestead, the form of construction, the radius of farming and the demands for the future development of the village are investigated in detail. Then the data is archived and recorded on a household basis in order to provide a reliable basis for the planning and design of village renovation in the later period.

3.2.3List of villagers’ daily activities. In order to be able to design a public space that meets the production and living needs of the villagers and is popular with the villagers, designers enter the village, experience the daily life of the villagers for a day, and then investigate all kinds of public spaces in the village. The designers also communicate with the villagers to understand their time cycle of farming, going out to work and resting all the year round, sum up the table of villagers’ behavior laws, and guide the next planning work.

3.3Villagespatialcontrolanddevelopmentplanning

3.3.1Suitability evaluation of village spatial land. Whether a safe rural ecological pattern and a suitable village human settlements environment can be constructed is directly related to the rational utilization and control of the village spatial pattern. By using multiple indices for evaluating the unit, the suitability of urban and rural construction land is evaluated for the renovation plan of Zengjia Village. The main factors affecting the future development of the village are listed: topography and geomorphology, rural roads, external traffic, geological disasters, service facilities. In the evaluation area, the grid type evaluation units are divided, and the selected factors are weighted and superimposed to obtain the suitability comprehensive evaluation value. According to the evaluation value range, the suitable construction land, constructable land and forbidden construction land are divided. The forbidden construction land is the area near the river in the west of Zengjia Village and the area where there are natural disasters. The suitable construction land is within the radius of public facilities adjacent to the national highway. Constructable land is an area where certain engineering prevention and control measures need to be taken for the development of construction activities.

3.3.2Selection of safe and appropriate land for village construction. In the village renovation and planning, the choice of construction land should be based on safety and suitability. Safety is considered from two aspects: ecological security and engineering safety. In terms of ecological security, we should avoid the basic farmland, woodland and other areas rich in ecological resources. In terms of engineering safety, zones prone to geological disasters, and areas where regional traffic and infrastructure pass through should be avoided. In terms of suitability, the farming radius of farmers’ production should be taken into account. Within the appropriate tillage radius, priority is given to wasteland that is not suitable for agricultural production. We should try to occupy as little as possible or not occupy areas where ecological resources are better. At the same time, some social factors, such as consanguinity, and religious belief, should also be taken into account. Based on the above analysis, the internal construction land of Zengjia Village has been reorganized, and the village construction land is divided into three types: retention type, control and development type and merger type. For residents living in areas prone to geological disasters, there is a need for relocation, and moderate integration into areas with good development conditions, so as to improve the utilization rate of land, to create a safe, comfortable and livable living environment.

3.4GuidingthedominantanddiversifieddevelopmentofindustryIn the village renovation planning, it is necessary to fully tap the existing agricultural planting, lotus seedpod economy, family aquaculture and other resources in Zengjia Village, integrate its industrial land for concentration, and guide agricultural production to take the large-scale, professional and brand development road. And comprehensive development of agricultural diversity is required, in order to change the development of a single economy. Based on the development of agriculture, from rural life, agricultural farming and agricultural landscape, it is necessary to exploit tourism resources to form rural tourism integrating leisure, sightseeing, and experience. In the future industrial development of Zengjia Village, the leading industry is mainly modern agriculture, while the auxiliary industry is rural tourism.

3.4.1Leading industries. For the modern agricultural development strategy in the village area, the modern agricultural development structure of "one belt and five parks" is mainly adopted (Fig.3). "One belt"——high quality lotus seedpod planting belt: using the characteristics of local topography and geomorphology for lotus seedpod planting along the slope of the tableland. "Five parks"——facility vegetable plantations and lotus seedpod plantations arranged next to the national highway, easy to sell and transport; together with the eco-agricultural demonstration park located on the tableland of Zengjia Village, aiming to jointly build a characteristic park integrating modern agricultural sightseeing and leisure; characteristic seedling planting area, combined with orange manor, supporting planting the characteristic seedlings with ornamental value; special breeding base, taking the empty abandoned house as the base to carry out the appropriate construction transformation, and develop Zengjia Village’s scale breeding industry.

3.4.2Auxiliary industries. Rural tourism development strategy can be shown in Fig.4. Zengjia Village has superior traffic location and lotus seedpod, orange forest and other characteristic agricultural landscape resources, as well as red cultural resources. Therefore, there is a need for the comprehensive development of the economic, social and ecological functions of agriculture, to promote the diversified development strategy of modern agriculture. First, the landscape development of agriculture. Relying on lotus seedpod sightseeing area, combined with the surrounding characteristic seedling planting area, we can form wedding photography and film and television shooting base. Second, the experiential development of agricultural production. Combined with the ecological agriculture demonstration garden, the village can set up the agricultural culture exhibition area, forming the leisure experience agriculture which is mainly dominated by the agricultural cultivation, the agricultural product picking, and the agricultural science popularization education. Third, the leisure development of local culture. Zengjia Village renovates folk houses with traditional features. It focuses on renovating the architectural style to make it become a concentrated display area of culture. It actively cultivates "agritainment" with a certain basis to form "agritainment" leisure vacation integrating "eat, play, and live", thus promoting the development of the tertiary industry in Zengjia Village.

Fig.3Layoutofindustrialdevelopment

3.5RenovationofthespaceenvironmentsuitablefortherealityofthevillageIn the environmental renovation work, Zengjia Village follows the principle of adapting measures to local conditions and drawing on local resources using materials at hand. In the whole planning process, it is necessary to guide the local craftsmen and villagers to participate in the environmental renovation, continue the local construction technology and make full use of local materials to repair the building and renovate street style. In greening, it is necessary to plant local unique tree species, grow crops in the open space before and behind the house, to create a local landscape of economic value. It not only saves the economic cost of environmental renovation, but also makes the villagers participate in the village renovation planning, leading villagers’ self-governance. Thus it reflects the unique environmental features of the village, so that the villagers feel proud of the local environment.

Fig.4Layoutofruraltourismdevelopment

In the village renovation planning, the villagers’ living habits and folk customs are fully considered, and the public space in the village is divided into two types: festival space and daily communication space. The festival space is renovated by the open space in front of the village committee and cultural activity center, and a cultural square is planned for people to hold some traditional folk activities on a daily basis. Daily communication space makes use of the front courtyard space and idle land. In the planning, the villagers are guided to renovate and green the front and back houses, so as to form a space that one can stay in (Fig.5). At the same time, the idle construction land in the village is renovated and optimized by means of debris cleaning, ground hardening treatment, landscape greening and so on. Through the configuration of rest seats, fitness equipment and small flower beds, it can form a micro small square. It not only meets the villagers’ neighborhood communication and leisure activities, but also has the unique functions of villagers drying some grains and other rural life. The environmental renovation of the village is not only to beautify the space environment, but also to respect the living habits of the villagers and understand the actual needs of the villagers. In this way, an economical, practical and popular space can be planned.

Fig.5Renovatedenvironment

3.6ContinuationoftraditionalcultureandpromotionoftheoverallstyleofthevillageIn the renovation planning of Zengjia Village, it is necessary to fully respect the local traditional culture, extract the regional characteristics of local folk houses to be combined with the local environment, and shape the landscape style of the village, farmland and forest land as one. In the organization of architectural space, it is necessary to retain the original architecture and natural landscape and make full use of it. We should respect the original texture relationship, so that it can be related in space, forming a regional courtyard spatial pattern. The new house has local characteristics. We should not only unify the use of local architectural elements, control floor height of 2-3 stories, but also coordinate the overall style of Zengjia Village through the building layout, color control and detail design. At the same time, attention should be paid to the protection and utilization of the better preserved residential buildings in the village, and the renovation and rehabilitation should be carried out. It is necessary to retain the original architectural form to transform into landscape architecture. Combined with tourism, there is a need to add modern display, catering and other functions to promote the recycling of traditional dwellings.

3.7Strengtheningvillagers’participationinthewholeprocess

3.7.1Establishment of procedures for villagers’ participation in the whole process. The renovation planning of the village is directly related to the specific interests of the villagers. As the main body of the village development, the villagers have played a key role in promoting the sustainable development of the village. In the process of Zengjia Village renovation, three stages of villagers’ participation procedure are constructed. First, the research stage. The opinions are collected, in-home interviews, questionnaires and villagers’ opinion solicitation meeting are organized to properly understand the most important problems to be solved in the development of the village. Second, the plan compilation stage. The villagers’ opinions on the planning results are solicited, and through the convening of villagers’ opinion communication meetings, the villagers are allowed to participate in the village renovation planning. Third, the planning publicity stage. Before the renovation plan is completed and sent to the examination and approval department, the key points shall be made into a public notice column in the village and publicized, and the feedback of the villagers on the planning shall be collected.

3.7.2Establishing the responsibility of villagers’ self-governance. As the manager of the village, the villagers are the beneficiaries of the environmental renovation, and at the same time, they should be the builders of the environmental renovation of the village. In the process of renovation, in order to mobilize the enthusiasm of the villagers and cultivate the enthusiasm of the villagers for maintaining the cleanliness of the environment, Zengjia Village guides farmers to carry out self-governance and long-term management of their own courtyard and farmland, such as cleaning the small garden in front of the house, cleaning up the sundries in the courtyard, guiding farmers to transform the house into characteristic happy farmhouse, and planting ornamental cash crops. This will not only promote the improvement of the village environment, but also raise the income of farmers.

4 Conclusions

Village renovation planning is not only a long-term and continuous process, but also a complex system project. The cumulative evolution of each village has its own internal growth logic. Therefore, as a planner, we should look at the rural construction from the perspective of the countryside, establish the main position of the villagers, and strengthen their organizational ability. It is necessary to activate the endogenous power of the village with the help of external resources, and then promote the sustainable development of the region. This paper is an exploratory work to guide the village’s "endogenous development" planning. Whether the village’s "endogenous development" can be realized in the later stage needs to be verified and constantly improved in practice.