Design Approach and Method for Rural Homestays

Rural tourism in China has been gaining popularity in recent years, as more and more people seek a break from the fast-paced city life to reconnect with nature and learn about rural culture. With its abundance of natural resources and rich cultural heritage, China’s countryside offers a unique travel experience that is attracting an increasing number of visitors.

One of the most popular forms of accommodation for rural tourism in China is homestays. These are small-scale lodgings run by local families, offering visitors the chance to experience authentic rural life while enjoying comfortable accommodations.

Designing homestays in rural China requires a thoughtful approach that takes into account the needs of both guests and the local community. The first step is to understand the local culture and traditions, as well as the natural environment. This includes researching the history and customs of the region, as well as the local flora and fauna.

The next step is to design the homestay itself. When designing a homestay in rural China, it is important to create a space that blends seamlessly into the natural surroundings. This can be achieved through the use of locally sourced materials and traditional building techniques. For example, using timber and stone, or incorporating a courtyard design that allows for natural light and ventilation, can help create a rustic and comfortable atmosphere.

In addition to the physical design, it is also important to consider the services and activities that will be offered to guests. In rural China, this might include guided hikes or bike tours, cooking classes featuring local cuisine, or cultural performances. These activities provide visitors with a unique and immersive experience that allows them to connect with the local community and culture.

Another key consideration is sustainability. Homestays should be designed and operated in a way that minimizes their impact on the environment and supports the local economy. This might include using solar panels for electricity, composting toilets to reduce water usage, or sourcing food and other materials locally.

Ultimately, successful homestays in rural China are those that provide guests with a unique and authentic travel experience, while also supporting the local community and protecting the environment. Through thoughtful design and responsible operation, homestays can help promote sustainable rural tourism in China and provide visitors with an unforgettable travel experience.



Homestays, although small, are a lever for current tourism supply-side reform and rural development. Due to their small size, flexibility, and beauty, they are more likely to attract a large number of small and medium-sized capital investments and operators, activate a large amount of idle resources in society, and create diversified experiential products that are small yet refined, beautiful, and unique.

As national income increases, vacation opportunities multiply, the diversity of rural landscapes expands, and the trend of leisure tourism rises, rural areas can offer not only vacant rooms in self-use housing but also the reuse of idle agricultural facilities as accommodation and experiential facilities. Along with the development of agro-tourism, they can provide urbanites with places to relax and relieve stress, making it a win-win situation.

On the one hand, homestays provide tourists with an alternative to hotels and motels, offering a warm and homey atmosphere that is markedly different from normal lodging. They also attract people who want to experience local customs and culture up close. The popularity of guesthouses and homestays has made it necessary to display personality and characteristics in the social realm.

The significance of homestay development

The current trend of homestay development reflects changing urban (tourist) demands, satisfies new demands in contemporary leisure and holiday markets, and meets the new appeals of rural (tourism) development, fulfilling multiple appeals, such as structural reforms in supply-side, rural construction, encouraging small and medium-sized investment, innovation, and entrepreneurship.From a tourism perspective

With the development of transportation and the popularization of self-driving cars, self-drive tours, deep travel, free travel, and experiential travel have become popular trends. Homestays, based on knowledge economy, and relying on natural ecological environments, cater to the needs of tourists for free experiences that incorporate homestay design values.From an economic perspective

Homestays enhance the rural economy and good homestay designs can be a powerful driver of rural economic structural transformation, increasing farmers' income and driving the overall industry chain.From a cultural perspective

The development of homestays is beneficial for exploring and preserving local culture, history, and natural ecologies. Through modern cultural creativity, local cultures and customs are extended and inherited. Homestay design can also reshape the charm and cultural competitiveness of rural areas.From a social perspective

Homestay design is a bridge that carries modern urban civilization genes to rural areas, catering to modern people's interests, dreams, lifestyle concepts, and aesthetic needs. It promotes the improvement of farmers' quality, changes their way of life, and elevates rural social values. Therefore, the development of homestays will become a new grip for the integrated development of eco-agriculture and tourism.


Design purposes and principles of rural homestays: Design purposes:To address the current imbalance between urban and rural areas, sharing space and facilitating diverse cultural exchange.
To promote employment and improve the quality of material and spiritual life.
To return to nature and live in harmony with nature.
To have sustainable development significance.

Design principles of rural homestays:Respect for nature - every place has its unique natural environment and resource endowment.
Respect for humanity - space is born out of people.
Respect for the market - norms in management processes.
Sustainability - giving life to space.

Characteristics of rural homestay design:

Regional and local features - the landscape planning and design of rural homestays should reflect their regional and cultural characteristics. Local elements should be utilized fully to maintain the authenticity of rural resources and create a rural image. The use of traditional local architectural styles and vegetation, the preservation of the existing rural landscape, and encouragement measures to maintain local agricultural ecological civilization are essential. Moreover, local customs, folklore, festivals, arts and crafts, such as tea art, bamboo art, painting, sculpture, and sericulture history, are all important components of rural cultural life and can be designed to enhance the regional and cultural characteristics of rural homestays' landscapes.


Comprehensive nature - the landscape design of rural homestays needs to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to consider and design them as a whole. This will achieve the coordinated development of tourism functions and ecological environments, realizing their optimal utilization. Special attention should be paid to the planting of native rural plants in the courtyard and surroundings to create an overall environmental atmosphere.

Agricultural experiential - rural homestay landscape provides tourists with an important carrier for experiencing rural life and agriculture. In the design, respect for local rural agricultural landscapes protects historical rural features to enable them to become authentic rural farms. Moreover, providing agricultural-related scenic spots and courses can offer visitors a comprehensive agricultural experience.

Ecological naturalness - rural homestay landscape design emphasizes natural beauty, ecological harmony, aesthetic harmony, and the integration of the environment to reduce artificial modification of landscapes. The design should focus on the natural agricultural scenery of the countryside, such as terraced terrain, colorful hybrid forests, wildflowers on country paths, moss-covered stones at village entrances, and wooden fences. Appropriate planning and design of artistic ecology will create an excellent rural atmosphere. Borrowing from idyllic pastoral scenery, visitors can enjoy the colorful fields, beautiful farmland, rolling hills, winding streams, lush forests, and vaguely visible villages by setting up viewing platforms and low walls to appreciate the rural scenery outside the garden.

Considerations for rural homestay design: In rural homestay design, space and buildings should be preserved, renovated, or demolished based on actual conditions.

Preserve:

Buildings with a sense of historical era that are relatively intact; traditional courtyard structures with complete spatial layouts; functional and structurally sound dwellings; exquisitely crafted historic components and valuable ancient building components that cannot be restored; pleasant spatial scales; and a strong sense of life.

Renovate:

Dwellings with unclear structural designs and unreasonable functional designs; facades of some street-side buildings can be renovated to introduce certain functions (such as commercial and leisure activities); residual components can be diversified through landscape design or collected in exhibition halls on the site; and abandoned sites without value can be used as leisure and entertainment spaces.

Demolish:

Buildings that cannot be repaired, renovated or are idle; and illegally constructed buildings.

Key points of rural homestay landscape design:

Orderly space and year-round scenery: In the spatial design of rural homestay landscapes, vertical space can be divided into different levels by designing different trees, shrubs, and ground-covering plants. The combination of different elements such as flowers, plants, paths, and other elements in horizontal space design can make the landscape more natural and beautiful. Moreover, the design should not only consider the needs of one season but rather analyze each season specifically to ensure that there are no barren scenes in any season. When selecting plant species, the diversity and variations of flowers and trees during autumn and winter should also be considered to create landscape scenery throughout the year.


Rational function and perfect form: In rural homestay landscape design, various functional needs should be considered, such as placing agricultural tools, rotating space, grain drying space, and space for poultry and livestock activities. Specific attention should be paid to functionality to design suitable aesthetic forms, such as planting medium-sized trees that can be used for shading, drying grain support structures, and clotheslines. Additionally, due to the characteristics of rural homestays, 1-2 medium-to-small-sized fruit trees, such as persimmon, peach, and pear trees, can also be planted in homestay courtyards to increase economic benefits.

Multifaceted and natural beauty: Rural homestay landscape design should first and foremost have functional appropriateness. Landscaping should be suitable for functionality and not blindly pursue high, large, or abstract individual features. Secondly, the form should be appropriate and harmonious with the functional design, forming a harmony between the objective and visual experience. Finally, it should be aesthetically appropriate, satisfying aesthetic needs in addition to functional and formal requirements. In rural homestay landscape design, aesthetic beauty should be primarily reflected in natural beauty. Natural beauty is what people seek and expect from the experience of rural homestay landscapes.

Using local resources and innovative utilization:

In homestay landscape design, designers should consider the actual needs of farmers and use the principle of being the cheapest, most convenient, and most economical as a starting point for landscape design.

Local resources can be used to beautify landscapes; for example, unsightly and lifeless lime or mud brick walls can be decorated or blocked using flower walls or green hedges. Vining vegetables and fruits such as loofah, gourds, and cucumbers can be guided using simple and elegant wooden trellises.

Additionally, using recyclable waste from daily life is also an excellent design idea. Bottles and jars from discarded waste materials can be used as raw materials to make the best flower pots, courtyard pieces, wall decorations, and more in rural homestay landscape design.

As long as designers have a creative mindset and are good at innovatively utilizing rural materials, sustainable rural homestay landscapes that are low-carbon, environmentally friendly, and economical will emerge.

In summary, although homestays are small, they are leveraged as a driving force for current tourism supply-side reform and rural development. Due to their small size, lightness, and beauty, they are more likely to attract a large number of social small and medium-sized capital, numerous investment operators, and activate a large amount of idle resources in society, creating diverse and high-quality experiential products. While stimulating and leading new demands for tourism and leisure, they create livable, visitable, and business-friendly rural communities, revitalizing rural areas, continuing local culture and lifestyles, enhancing cultural confidence and life confidence, transforming people's value concepts about rural life, and driving the development of more rural communities, allowing cities and rural areas to interact positively and sustainably. Therefore, the social significance of homestay development far exceeds its economic value.