In 2019, 1U1V construction team, comprising more than 50% women and led by a female leader, was established in Sichuan to implement “equal pay for equal work”. In the same year, artists, Cao Minghao and Chen JIanjun were invited to participate in the the 13th Shanghai Biennale held at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, China. Their design project, named “Water System Refuge”, used tents and discarded building materials of the Qiang ethnic people to reveal the impacts of local policies and post-disaster reconstruction in the upper stream of Minjiang River. They also incorporated research on post-earthquake reconstruction and earth construction technology studied by 1U1V team for over 10 years into this design project.

The “Water System Refuge” installation consists of a rammed earth wall with dimensions 4M (W) by 5M (H) by 0.5M (D), wooden frames, tent and display cabinets placed in the front and back. The wall was made using new anti-seismic rammed earth house construction technology by the women construction team. Four craftsmen completed the wall construction with high quality in just 5 days. Please click here for more details.