Hong Kong-based Rural Urban Framework (RUF) has spent almost a decade documenting the transitional landscapes in China and Mongolia, and working on projects in their remote villages.

In this video, the practice explores the subject of ‘Rural Migration’, which refers to rural villagers who move to urban areas in search of work.

From RUF:

In cities in China, these migrants often live in dense urban villages that have emerged as a direct result of the difference in policy over land-use rights between urban land and rural land. As migrants send their earned money home, urban villages and rural villages become more interconnected. The influx of economy is deposited into a process of house construction whereby the rural village begins to resemble the urban village. Bigger houses are status symbols, displaying the new wealth earned from employment in the cities. The rural village gradually becomes denser, even though the population steadily declines as rural migrants are drawn to the city.

Rural Migration (2013) presents the co-evolution of the urban and rural village and their condition of interdependency, showcasing a series of built and hypothetical design projects that engage with public space and public programs that acknowledge the increasing synergy between the rural and urban, while working toward authentic contemporary identities for each.

For more on Rural Urban Framework, go to rufwork.org. Also read Cubes Indesign’s story, out now in issue 71.