The village of Luotuowan, in the Chinese province of Shanxi, has undergone an important process of renewal and technical adaptation in recent years, so that many wooden houses have been replaced by reinforced concrete structures. 

LUO Studio has used the huge amount of waste material resulting from the renovations to build a pergola space, a place of rest and relaxation for the rural community. The Chinese studio designed a reticular structure that exploits the material in the most efficient way possible.

“Wooden rods were reclaimed from demolished houses of various depths, so the lengths of these woods were different,” say the architects. 

“We didn’t cut or lengthen any wooden rod. Instead, we took into account the tolerance of length variation and ingeniously arranged the position of each wooden unit.”