The Maison S Museum, which is located in Songyang, is both a reception hall for a Chinese Minsuku with six guestrooms and a small folk museum that showcases the lives of local villagers.

Challenge: Chinese Minsuku, a type of accommodation different from hotels,has become popular in China in recent years. More and more city people come to the countryside to experience the rural simplicity that is completely different from the city. However, normal Chinese Minsuku only provide a simple copy of the village space, so they cannot satisfy the guests' curiosity about the rural life.

Solution: To design the reception hall as a small folk museum, and open it to the public to fully display the life scenes of the villagers: cooking, drinking tea, pounding rice, ancestor worship, reading, sleeping, etc. In this way, guests who come to stay can also experience more.

The reception hall should be local-cultural-display oriented. The original local lifestyle and architectural spirit should be awaked via the renovation and exhibition. Wood boards reused from abandoned and disassembled local buildings were employed.

To design the Maison S’ reception hall as a small folk museum, and open it to the public to display scenes of the villagers’ way of life. As a consequence, guests staying at the Minsuku can enjoy a much richer rural experience. Wood boards, which is natural and healthy material, reused from abandoned and disassembled local buildings were employed. It is also a way of sustainable design method which reduce the waste of wood.