Entity
Yulin Farmer Art Building
Yulin, Guangxi, China
The skyline of Xinxu Town breaks abruptly at the edge of the fields, interrupted by a silhouette that appears to be several different buildings collapsing into one another. Rising ten stories above the rural landscape, the Farmer Art Building resembles a fever dream captured in concrete. Russian-style onion domes sit alongside Thai-inspired spires, while French neo-classical balustrades wrap around traditional Chinese garden pavilions. This vertical collage is the singular vision of Li Jiguang, a local farmer and construction contractor who began the project in 2014 without a single blueprint.
Li directs the placement of every beam and brick from memory, improvising the engineering as the structure rises. He liquidated his life savings of 15 million RMB to fund the construction, driven by a specific moment of indignation: hearing a visitor dismiss modern Chinese architecture as soulless "matchboxes." In response, he sought to build something that defied definition. The resulting tower is a raw, physical stream of consciousness. Inside, the experience shifts from the polished eccentricity of the facade to the rough texture of a work in progress. Staircases are hand-sculpted to resemble the hollows of ancient trees, leading visitors through cavernous, unfinished halls that expose the building's skeleton.
More than a tourist attraction, the structure is a slow-motion performance of will. It sits on land originally designated for a tourism zone that never materialized, leaving Li to continue his work in isolation. The building remains in a permanent state of becoming, dependent on the entrance fees of curious visitors to fund the next bag of cement. It stands as a monument to untrained ambition, proving that architecture can be a visceral, emotional act rather than a calculated science.