Reconstructing renovation

A South African architect rebuilds notions about refurbishing traditional structures in a rural Chinese village. Li Yang reports.

Villagers call him "Crazy Ian". The nickname was invented years ago, when he started renovating tumbledown buildings in Jiuxian village, a rural settlement flanking the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's Yangshuo area.

But South African architect Ian Hamlinton's apparent madness is now accepted as genius, since he effectively constructed a new approach to rebuilding, rather than replacing, crumbling structures.