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Architects: FARchitect
- Area: 450 m²
- Year: 2023
Background. Since 2020, FARchitect has participated in the Tianyuhe Village landscape beautification project as the design party, and established close connections and trust with the village collective and villagers in design and on-site services. At the beginning of 2021, encouraged by the national rural revitalization policy, Tianyuhe Village collective decided to introduce "New Village Craftsman Residents" and turn four idle rural homesteads into "Craftsman's House" homestays with the theme of craftsmen's studios, as a model project for the village collective to explore new models of rural revitalization. The four "Craftsmen's Houses" include the rural restaurant of the Chef's New Village Resident's Studio, the rural traditional Chinese culture museum of the Calligrapher's and Painter's New Village Resident's Studio, the rural design center of the Architect's New Village Resident's Studio, and the rural homestay college of the homestay operator's New Village Resident's Studio. However, FARchitect had been deeply influenced by this new model of rural revitalization and accepted the invitation as New Village Resident Architect, becoming the masters of the rural design center.
Planning and positioning. In the initial positioning of the overall "craftsmanship house" project, the architect's "craftsmanship house" was defined as two independent functions: "resident architect studio" and "homestay". Taking into account the driving role of later operation and expansion of the project, we propose to, on the one hand, treat the "resident architect studio" as an open public space, open to both villagers and guests staying in the hotel; On the other hand, expand this "resident architect studio" into a rural design center that includes comprehensive art spaces such as rural art museums, rural reception halls, rural cafes, rural tea rooms, and rural creative office spaces. This rural design center, as a public art space, is not only an office space for resident architects, but also a public and service space for the homestay part of the house, a public reception hall for four "craftsmen's houses" projects, and an art museum for local villagers. The Tianyuhe Rural Design Center serves as a two-way window to showcase the local folk art of Tianyuhe Village to urban tourists, while bringing the city's artistic resources to the countryside for local villagers. Architects not only provide design services for rural areas but also further achieve the goal of empowering villages with design and art.
3 Volume and Mountain. Located in the mountains, Tianyuhe Village boasts beautiful and majestic scenery. The original four idle homesteads were distributed on four adjacent terraces between the river and the foot of the mountain, while the Rural Design Center was relatively the tallest. Properly managing the relationship with overwhelming natural landscapes, strictly adhering to planning and environmental regulations, and maintaining coordination with surrounding houses at the same time reflecting a certain degree of individuality as an art center, which is the focus when considering the relationship between architecture and the external environment. Through multiple discussions with the village collective and consulting with the planning and management department on policies. We strictly limit the building outline to the original 160 square meters of land occupied by the old house and try to reduce the building height as much as possible within the planned red line with a height limit of 9 meters. In such a beautiful natural landscape, the homestay section requires a terrace and a glass restaurant. Therefore, we divided the roof into a flat-roofed terrace section and a sloping roofed guest room section and then concealed the height of the sloping roof through the extension of the parapet wall on the terrace section. Finally, a three-story spatial layout was achieved at a visual height of 7.4 meters and a building height of 8.1 meters. In terms of building materials, we have chosen demolished old blue bricks as the surface material, and the mottled and ancient blue bricks are integrated with the mountain, boulders, and rubble retaining walls closely behind. The building is like an artificial rock set in the mountains at a suitable scale and also integrates with the surrounding houses as a simple blue brick house. However, its thought-provoking windows attract people to explore the interior.
Function and Circulation. The beautiful and precious natural environment requires minimal volume, while the functional positioning of the design center and homestay requires maximum content. Therefore, how to achieve intensive and composite utilization of the site is the focus of spatial design. Firstly, we clearly distinguish between the design center as a public space and the homestay as a private space, so that they do not affect each other. Due to the location of the site at the foot of the mountain, which is relatively closed in the lower areas but open in the higher areas, the homestay section is placed at a higher level to achieve a good view, and the design center is placed at a lower level to enhance accessibility and public accessibility. The design center has set up a rural art museum, a rural reception hall, a rural tea room, and a rural creative space, assigning different levels and heights to each space, and forming a rich spatial visual effect. It is connected by a single-running staircase that highlights the public nature, entering from the entrance of the front yard; The homestay section is equipped with four guest rooms, a kitchen, a storage room, a glass restaurant, and an observation terrace, a equipped with a double running staircase as independent transportation entering from the entrance of the backyard. On the one hand, a clear distinction between the public and private parts can ensure that their functions do not interfere with each other, and on the other hand, these two parts can be organically connected in rural reception halls. Through the overall composite design of elevation, floor height, function, and circulation, the Tianyuhe Rural Design Center maximizes internal usage while minimizing external environmental occupations, and also brings an extremely rich spatial experience.
Material and Performance. Tianyuhe Village has distinct four seasons, with a severe cold in winter and scorching heat in summer. Although the scenery is magnificent in winter, the lowest temperature is below minus 10 degrees Celsius. Due to the lack of heating, local villagers often go down the mountain to live in winter; Although the temperature in summer is lower than in cities, the highest temperature is also above 35 degrees. Therefore, how to improve the thermal performance of buildings and the consideration of green and low-carbon is no longer a superficial issue, but an important issue that owners should actively consider to reduce operating costs. Firstly, in such a beautiful natural environment, rejecting the Mies-style glass box is not only due to its abrupt appearance but also due to energy consumption issues. Due to the obstruction of the mountain terrain, only the high north side of the house receives direct sunlight in winter. Therefore, the openings of this blue brick-shaped building is less in the low areas and more in the high areas. On the highest terrace, an all-glass restaurant is set up as a sunroom, which is not only a form consideration, but also a need for energy conservation. Secondly, in terms of wall construction, an 8cm XPS insulation layer is set between the 120mm blue brick skin and the 200mm concrete insulation block on the inner wall. This 400mm thick outer wall and high-performance system windows shape the appearance of the “rock” and ensure the excellent insulation performance of the house. Finally, the special spatial design not only shapes the transparent visual relationship but also brings multiple ventilation throughout the entire building, reducing air conditioning energy consumption in summer.
6 Architecture and Interior - The special functions and spatial design bring rich interior space experiences, which are the foundation of spatial relationships. Strengthening this spatial effect in interior design is the core of the interior design stage. The simplest design logic is to distinguish different spaces through simple materials and colors such as concrete, wood, white, and black. Therefore, the walls, window frames, doors, tables, beds, cabinets, and baseboards are all made of birch plywood (ocean board), and the color, texture, and moisture-proof performance of the original wood perfectly match the natural atmosphere and physical environment of the mountains and wilderness. The wood and polished concrete floor, as well as the exposed concrete ceiling, create a simple and natural atmosphere in the room. The white space serves as a void, while the black furniture and the dancing flames in the fireplace also indicate physical activity. Different from traditional interior design, here, space is the essence, and materials are not the protagonists who jump into the foreground, but the supporting role that shapes the sense of space and farness.
Space Depth Aesthetics. In practice, Tianyuhe Rural Design Center is the first completed house in the "Architectural Space Depth Aesthetics" series works of FARchitect. The general "rich spatial effect" can be precisely explained here: unlike enclosed and isolated rooms in daily life, the five rooms connected through rural reception halls, including the rural art museum, rural reception hall, rural tea room, rural creative space, and a private kitchen room, form a three-dimensional and mutually open group of rooms as a whole. Each room opens to both nature and neighboring rooms, carefully maintaining its sense of domain without collapsing, making it feel like it cannot stay. The parallel walls of this group of rooms form two line-of-sight relationships that cross multiple rooms and connect to the outdoor mountain: one line of sight passes through public rooms and tea rooms, looking up at the mountain; Another group of eyes crosses through public rooms and private kitchens, looking down at the mountains. When the viewer's gaze passes through the openings of each floor of a room in a public space and looks out at the mountains and forests outside the window, the depth of the space becomes an indescribable illusion, becoming an object of aesthetic reflection, allowing people to constantly shuttle between two staircases and stay in front of different openings. As a result, the house becomes an art of space; When the lights at the pitch-black kitchen entrance are turned on, the butler of the homestay, who was preparing meals, suddenly invades the public view. At this moment, everything was at the touch of the eye but far away. Outside the window, there was heavy snow blocking the mountain, and the fire in the fireplace was burning fiercely. At this moment, the building created an internal world located in the natural wilderness.
