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Architects: Jimei Survey and Design
- Area: 260 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Sun Haiting
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Lead Architect: Shengchen Yang
Text description provided by the architects. Beijing's siheyuan courtyard house is the most typical form of northern Chinese residential architecture. Early siheyuan featured strict spatial hierarchies, but with the development of society, they gradually transformed into large, communal-like courtyards, where these public spaces did indeed bring residents closer together, yet also deprived them of privacy.
This project is an exploration by the client and designer of a new residential model for Beijing's Siheyuan. Despite the modest size of the project, the client hoped it could still accommodate both themselves and their friends, with excess rooms even potentially operated as a hotel. A "communal" lifestyle akin to that of "Friends" was envisioned, necessitating a shared living room space where everyone could gather and dine together, yet each person would have their own living unit.
The building to be renovated is a standard single-courtyard siheyuan located in Chuziying Hutong, Tianqiao. The courtyard was enclosed years ago, transforming it into an indoor space. While this action completely altered the spatial structure of the classic siheyuan, it created more spatial possibilities
