Until two years ago, Langtou was one of the nearly empty ancient villages in Guangdong Province of China with remarkable architectural heritage. The Langtou Experiment is a social, cultural, and environmental endeavor that tries to bring life back to this dying community with people from near and far with knowledges of vastly different fields, from architects from Beijing, preservationists from Shanghai, entrepreneurs from Guangzhou, art scholars from Paris to Langtou villagers who are revitalization activists and small business owners. Atelier FCJZ took an important role in designing some of the architectural spaces such as ChunYangTai Arts and Cultural Centre and Gengxue+ Education Centre.
At this year's Biennale di Venezia, Atelier FCJZ is invited to showcase the Langtou Experiment in the form of installation. The Langtou Experiment is manifested through both large scaled models of the village vicinity and videoed documentaries. While the models display the spatial scope of the revitalization effort from a wider, planning perspective, showing in juxtaposition of the ancient village with its traditional houses and some of the recent architectural developments; the tri-fold videos document on three separate screens the natural and architectural establishments in the area, various project stakeholders through interviews, and slogans conveying ideas behind the project. The media of representation are unified under the protective, plywood model crates which are both a safety measure during transportation, and, once deployed, a transformed podium for model display and a folded platform for video-screening. The approach, embedded with the ideas of motivation, diversity, and sustainability, echoes the core objective of the Langtou Experiment itself.
The Langtou Experiment installation was displayed under the Collective Intelligence section of Biennale Architettura 2025, in the Arsenale-Corderie, from May 10 to November 23, 2025.