Editor’s Note: This is the second story in a series highlighting two projects funded by the Global South Community-Based Learning Programs grant. The first story detailing transdisciplinary approaches was published on November 11, 2024, and can be found on the Illinois International blog.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — One of two projects funded by a new transdisciplinary grant program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign started in January and is expected to foster community-based learning among students.
The project takes shape as a program called, “Place Making and Rural Tourism in China,” and is comprised of three interdisciplinary courses— ARCH 572, ARTD 499, and RST 594/199.
It is funded by the Global South Community-Based Learning Programs grant, an initiative of the university’s Vision 2030 Global Strategy and funded by the Office of the Provost.
This program invites Illinois students into a collaborative research, planning, and design process to develop coordinated architectural plans and designs, tourism development strategies, wayfinding plans and place-making activities that meet the specific needs of residents and visitors of Xihu Village located in Jiangxi Province, China.
On the Programs’ Background
Windy Zhao, an assistant professor in the School of Architecture and a licensed architect in the U.S.; Sharon Zou, an assistant professor at the Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism; and Molly Briggs, an assistant professor in the School of Art & Design designed the program, which is intertwined with their respective disciplines, and contributed to different aspects of the collective goal.
Zhao intentionally selected to work with Briggs and Zou because of their complimentary research from their respective backgrounds, which helped shape the structure of the program.
Zhao has worked in rural China for over 20 years and pulled inspiration for the course from her background.
Her research focuses on equity, social sustainability, and cultural diversity for underrepresented social groups in the context of globalization and urbanization.
She said it aims to understand local residents’ relationships with and understandings of their built environment.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Zhao’s work expands the body of knowledge in architectural and environmental design research by envisioning the built environment not as simply technocratic entities, but rather as contextual, relational, and cultural, and sometimes consanguineous, constructs and as systems of settings, relationships, activities, and meanings.
This is what students can expect to see in this program.
Zhao, Briggs, and Zou said the program roots place making and tourism development in the preservation of historical and natural heritage based on the local cultural identity and the evolving needs of both residents and visitors of Xihu Village.
Zhao teaches ARCH 572, Briggs teaches ARTD 499, and Zou teaches RST 594/199, and students attend the courses they signed up for while also working with each other throughout the semester though.
Zhao and Briggs said the program is cemented in community-engaged, human-centered design and planning, and will eventually show students different and underrepresented global perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of community-based sustainable tourism development.
The core learning outcomes include an understanding of the unique and sustainable architectural planning and designs, tourism development strategies, wayfinding plans, and place-making activities that are all tailored to the Village’s specific needs.
Students will explore these concepts through research, planning, and design fueled by feedback and support from local village stakeholders.
All of this is done, in part, to help create a more sustainable future for village residents and visitors.
Zhao, Briggs, and Zou said ultimately, they do not want to go in and tell residents what to do. They said they instead want to listen to their experiences and work with them to find sustainable solutions which could be looking at how to make what is already developed work for future needs.
And in February they did just this when students traveled to China with Zhao, Briggs, and Zou for a week-long study abroad opportunity. Other students who did not travel completed related campus-based activities.
Briggs said in the end, students in each section will come together to inform and enhance the planning and design process in order to achieve one comprehensive outcome.
On ARCH 572
ARCH 572 is a studio that challenges the dominant reconstruction and revitalization practices in rural communities in China.
This studio invites students to offer innovative solutions for residents based on their cultural identity, current needs, and viable future.
Specifically, the studio will provide a set of planning and design proposals for the local stakeholders of Xihu village.
The course description additionally states that the goal of this project is to increase tourism income through improving the infrastructure, such as roads, water system, and public spaces and amenities for tourism, and remodeling/constructing selected structures that aim to provide better service for tourists, including, but not limited to, public bathrooms, a welcome center, a boutique hotel, and a cultural center.
More importantly, the planning and design proposals will aim to promote cultural identity, maintain social sustainability, and enhance the meaning of place.
On ARTD 499
Briggs, who is a landscape historian, design theorist, visual artist, and trained printmaker, will be teaching ARTD 499.
Students taking this studio will develop wayfinding plans and memory-making plans that inform, and are informed by, architectural plans developed by students in the Architecture studio and tourism marketing plans by students in the Recreation, Sport and Tourism studio.
Wayfinding plans include coordinated systems of mapping and signage to help visitors navigate the site and interpret its significance.
Additionally, Briggs said students will design memory-making activities that build on wayfinding plans by introducing a variety of visitor experiences that enhance the sense of co-presence and engagement with the site’s cultural, historical, and phenomenological features.
On RST 199/594
Zou specializes in fostering sustainable communities through tourism and leisure, with a recent emphasis on rural tourism development. She will be teaching RST 199/594.
In this studio her students will get to explore the community-based tourism element by looking at development principles with hands-on developing and planning practices in the context of rural China.
Students will gain first-hand knowledge of how rural communities can leverage tourism to achieve economic, socio-cultural, and environmental sustainability.
On the Vision 2030 Global Strategy Grants
The Transdisciplinary Global South Community-Based Learning Program Development Grant is one of three initiatives developed to enhance engagement with the university’s Vision 2030 Global Strategy priorities.
The grant supports costs associated with the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of transdisciplinary community-based learning programs that develop Illinois students’ global competencies through global experiential learning and service models.
The grant is funded by the Office of the Provost and administratively supported by Illinois International. To learn more about Vision 2030, its priorities, and related initiatives, visit globalstrategy.illinois.edu.
Analicia Haynes is the storytelling and social media specialist for Global Communications in Illinois International. She can be reached at 217-333-5987 or ahayn2@illinois.edu.