A remote village of southern China has become this practices testing ground for blending traditional methodologies with digital toolsSuperposition was shortlisted for the AR Emerging awards 2024. Read about the full shortlist hereWhat are the parallels between Hong Kong Island and Ireland? Both are surrounded by water, former sites of British colonial rule and feel like villages, say Superposition co-founders Donn Holohan and Elspeth Lee. The pair have been working across these twogeographies for more than 10 years, abalancing act prompted by a teaching appointment at the University of Hong Kong. They first visited Peitian, in southern China, during a trip with students in 2015, and have since undergone aseries ofprojects in the village. Operating under sustained dialogue with the local community, each project combines digital technologies and vernacular craft techniques.Their first intervention is a bridge builtto reconnect farmlands that were isolated after access platforms were washed away during aflood. Superposition draws ontraditional joinery to articulate an interlocking timber bridge that stretches and slopes across astream. The covered bridge unfolds in aseries of elongated steps, allowing people topause and sit along its span. Holohan, acabinet maker by training, is adamant thatin order for craft to be preserved, itmust bepractised. In this project, 265 unique elements were digitally modelled andthen joined by hand, under the supervision of local carpenters. The process ensured the joints could betroubleshooted and tested prior to construction; the idea isthat digital tools can help reduce the high level of training and labour of traditional methodologies, to demonstrate their viability. Countering the often nostalgic viewof vernacular building techniques, thearchitects see the ancient village as apragmatic place, where people need andwant to modernise.Superstudios second gathering space inPeitian is a pavilion on anoutcrop in a passion fruitplantation. Thewoven shell undulates asymmetrically, with its openings designed not to obstruct views to the nearby ancestral tombs. Thestudio worked with the last remaining bamboo weaver of the village to rescale the application of his declining craft, usually reserved for small objects such as baskets and mats. Digital software was used to map the lengths of bamboo canes, which were then cut by a CNC machine. Thefinal form is evocative ofthe sun hats worn by rice farmers, and itshelters workers from the sweltering heat.Beyond advocating the preservation of regional trades, Holohan and Lee remain curious about what they could become. Nowhere is this more evident than in their ongoing living museum project, housed in the only two-storey building in Peitian. This disused rice store is becoming a workshop for local carpenters with no formalised place to sustain their practice. Superposition usedLight Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) mapping to scan and digitally model the existing building so that they could graft a tailored timber frame into it with precision, adapting to the earthen walls. Speaking to both the past and the future, the building will become a site of daily work, where traditional construction techniques can be discussed and evolved.