Articles by Xiaohang Hou

Located around 60 km north of Beijing’s city center at the foothills of the Great Wall of China, the architects were given the task to add a modest extension to a vacant rural house. By extending the original roof slope of the existing dwelling, 过半儿 guò bàn ér constructed an additional 120 square meters of living area. The extension placed at the garden level creates a much-intended split level between the dining area and the living room. The newly added pitched roof shelters the core social areas of the house. The roof kinks up at its east-side and west-side, accommodating a tea room and a small spa area.

Being situated at 80 kilometers away northwest of Tiananmen Square, Yudu Mountain overlooks the flat Yanhuai Basin. South-facing Yanjiabu Village sits on the mountain slope, with its crowded fabrics and typical northern Chinese countryside appearance. The village is with great tourism value due to its close distance to popular Longqing Gorge, as well as 2019 Garden Expo sites, and Shijinglong Ski Resort. Two courtyards which are located deep inside the village, are rented by client from twin brothers to be renovated into guesthouses. The program book asks architects to reasonably take advantage of courtyards’ existing buildings for more guestrooms, fully consider the economy of construction, and avoid the final results conflicting neighbors’ interests. As the landlords, the twin brothers also have two requirements: first, the renovation must not join the two courtyards into one so to respect existing property boundaries; and second, courtyards’ main entrances’ location should not be changed due to ‘Fengshui’ reasons.

Background. The project locates in Luchong Area at Cheng River beside the Fuxian Lake in Yunnan Province. In order to protect the water quality of Fuxian Lake, the local government gradually relocated the lakeside residential areas. The relocation led to the demolition of the old houses, which also provided the opportunities for recycling of brick and tile materials in this project. The following articlefocuses on the renovation strategies of three-story frame brick buildingsand newly-built the Floating House, the ClayScreen, the Bamboo Pavilion, the Rain Pavilion, the Tile Pavilions, the Slope Pavilionand the original walls withslight renovation. All of these present the output of renovation strategies, The eight rural construction styles emphasize thinking and analysis on renovation strategies of rural architecture.

Huai Nianshu is an excellent photographer. His new studio is located in an old factory facing the street in Nanjing L.park. In the early summer before the reconstruction, we went to the site, after the old partition was removed, the high-rise space of the old plant was warm and transparent in the sunlight of the afternoon. The photographer himself is extremely sensitive to light. His only expectation for the new space of the studio is “a transparent” space.