Bishan bookstore in Anhui's Huangshan [Photo by Matjaz Tancic/Provided to China Daily]

Building connections

Architects prefer to use local materials, refer to the local traditional houses and hire local workers for renovation projects.

In Yunnan province, for example, construction workers are not professionals. They are farmers who work in the fields and only take on building work if new homes are required.

"It's a very traditional style of mutual assistance," says Hua Li, who designed the Xiadi Paddy Field Bookstore, a branch of Librairie Avant-Garde in East China's Fujian province.

Architecture in the countryside is often the fruit of people's wisdom accumulated over generations in a certain place. It is based on the knowledge of the local weather, natural resources and culture. One can learn a lot from the buildings by observing and understanding them, Hua says.