2021 Benefitting Society - The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong

2021 Benefitting Society - The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong

One University One Village Initiatives

The One University One Village Rural Sustainable Development Assistance Programme (1U1V) was launched by Professor Edward NG and Dr Li WAN at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2014. It aspires to bring together the expertise, knowledge, and human resources of “a university” to improve the livelihood of “a village” and its needy villagers in a strategic, systematic, and sustainable manner.

The research and projects under this programme include village improvement work, bridge building, and a new rammed-earth building system in Mainland China. In 2015, the 1U1V team conducted a post-earthquake reconstruction project in Yunnan, China, to demonstrate the use of “high-science, low-technology” strategies with the “local materials, local labour, and local technology” principle of rural construction, and to encourage endogenous development in rural China. The project and the holistic strategy behind it have creatively improved the environmental, economic, and social sustainable development of poor rural areas. 

Top 3 learnings:

1. Research based “high-science, low-technology” construction and knowledge transfer strategies.
2. Low embodied energy “local materials”, “villagers friendly”, “local technology”, economical capacity building “local labour”.
3. People focused, gender balanced, knowledge rich, on-site working process.

Videos

• Video #1 (click to hide)