Teaming up with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and the local government, Boston-headquartered architecture firm ZNA took charge of designing a new Snow Mountain.
Wang Xu, executive principal of the company's China office, and his team turned 25 of 100 homes into guesthouses. Fifty households will continue with agriculture, to provide organic food for the village and guests. And the other 25 households will provide guest services such as laundry and housekeeping.
"Architecture is about people's lives. It means more than a concrete building, and it really affects ways of living, which is particularly true for a village like Snow Mountain that is seeking revival," said Wang.
"Several companies have asked us to work with them to develop ecotourism in our village," said Li De'an, Snow Mountain's Party chief.
Balancing modern architectural concepts and the culture of villages is a challenge for the architects.
Wang's team spent countless days and nights discussing how to meet villagers' requests while achieving standards that will attract guests.
For safety reasons, the new houses were made of concrete instead of wood, traditionally preferred by villagers. But the remnants of their former homes have been used for decoration. Bamboo chips coat the walls and cobblestone paths snake to front doors -- these touches give villagers the comfort of familiarity.
"My new house does feel like home, only it's safer and prettier," said Li Defang, one of those resettled.
Another peculiarly Chinese consideration for Wang is feng shui, the ancient philosophical system under which geomantic omens are held to affect the fortunes of an abode.
"Feng shui says the new houses should be situated in the north with their doors facing south, not facing a tree or a corner. We have followed these suggestions," he said.
Despite the patient approach, reconstruction is going to plan, according to Yang Zhuang, Party chief of Ya'an City, which administers the quake-hit area. He estimates that the three-year project will cost more than 87.6 billion yuan (14.14 billion U.S. dollars).
The quake left more than 100,000 families homeless. By the end of last year, more than 90,000 rural families had been rehoused, while new homes had been built for nearly 45 percent of those in urban areas, said Yang.
Around 75 percent of public facilities including schools and medical service buildings have been completed. "Students are all expected to move into their new school buildings when fall semester begins in September," according to Yang.
The 7.0-magnitude Lushan quake struck on April 20, 2013.
(Yang Yi, Dong Xiaohong, Yu Li and Liu Shilei also contributed to the story.)
