- Project: ongyang Shizhongshanfang Museum
- Architect: WIT Design & Research
- Location: China, Chenjiapu Village, Songyang County, Zhejiang Province
- Year: 2024
- Area: 230 m2
- Photography: TOPIA Vision & One Thousand Degrees
A Contemporary Museum Rooted in Rural Tradition
Nestled in Chenjiapu Village, often described as “the last secret land south of the Yangtze River,” the Songyang Shizhongshanfang Museum—also known as Maison S Museum—is a poetic example of how contemporary design can revitalize traditional landscapes.
Designed by WIT Design & Research, this compact 230 m² cultural space is ingeniously integrated within a village Bed & Breakfast reception building, transforming what was once a guest area into a public museum that narrates rural life.
Concept & Vision: A Homestay Museum for the Countryside
As countryside tourism flourishes in China, Maison S Museum redefines the guesthouse typology. It serves both as an artful cultural exhibition and as a living archive of village heritage.
Zhenhua Luo, Founding Partner of WIT, and Qinruo Chen, investor and co-designer, envisioned a space that connects urban visitors to authentic village traditions while maintaining architectural sensitivity to local identity.
Partner Chou Chou curated a sequence of immersive scenes—tea brewing, rice pounding, reading, ancestor worship, and communal cooking—turning the museum into a stage where everyday rituals are elevated into cultural storytelling.
Architecture & Integration with the Landscape
Perched midway on a verdant hillside, the museum glows like a beacon of light against Songyang’s terraced terrain.
Although its structure employs concrete and steel, the design language draws deeply from vernacular Songyang houses:
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Rammed-earth tones and wooden textures root the building in its rural context.
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A glass roof replaces the traditional central patio, inviting natural light while framing views of the surrounding mountains.
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A dormer skylight introduces vertical illumination, fostering a constant dialogue between nature and interior.
The balance between heritage form and modern technology allows the museum to feel both timeless and new—anchored to the mountain yet open to the sky.
Interior Experience & Material Expression
Inside, the museum unfolds around a seven-meter-high atrium where daylight filters through glass and wood screens.
The design merges steel and concrete with a lightweight steel framework that visually mimics timber, expressing a “new vernacular” language.
Traditional artifacts such as straw raincoats, used by local farmers during monsoon seasons, are displayed alongside minimalist furnishings, offering both authenticity and elegance.
Partner Rui Tao designed display shelves made from pressed paper panels, emphasizing restraint, softness, and ecological awareness.
Lighting by PROL delicately highlights key exhibits without overpowering the raw textures of the materials.
Cultural Continuity & Design Authenticity
Every corner of the museum is curated to honor Songyang’s architectural soul.
The team sourced vintage furniture and accessories from neighboring counties, ensuring each object carried its own history.
A rare antique couch bed anchors the bedroom scene—an intimate vignette of rural domesticity—while handcrafted ceramics and farming tools remind visitors of the region’s enduring craftsmanship.
Wood remains the emotional core of the design, symbolizing both shelter and spirituality in Chinese architecture. Its use throughout the project unites the past with the present.
Revitalizing Rural Identity
The Songyang Shizhongshanfang Museum demonstrates how architecture can fuel rural revitalization by intertwining tourism, culture, and conservation.
By transforming a modest B&B into a cultural landmark, WIT Design & Research proves that innovation need not disrupt tradition—it can amplify it.
Chenjiapu Village has become a national model for rural preservation, drawing international visitors eager to experience authentic village life.
Here, design serves as both preservation and progression—a bridge between a 600-year-old heritage and a contemporary future.
With its delicate balance of modern structure and ancestral memory, the Songyang Shizhongshanfang Museum is more than a building—it is a living chronicle of rural China.
Through WIT Design & Research’s sensitive architectural approach, the project becomes a cultural lens through which history, landscape, and community converge.
This mountain-side museum invites visitors not only to observe but to feel the continuity of time—a meditation on life, craft, and belonging in the new rural era.
