Dongcheng, China
Jianghai Shen and his design team at DAGA Architects renovated an existing ancient house in the Hutong of Dongsi North Street in Dongcheng District aiming in finding a balance between modern and traditional.
While improving the life quality of the owners, hoped their client would also get more abundant and unique experiences in the cramped small space.
In addition to the present effect, the project focuses more on an exploration of the possibilities of integration on classic and new styles.
Located in the Hutong of Dongsi North Street in Dongcheng District, the primary problem of the transformation is to leave privacy in the narrow space where many people live.
In fact, this is the inadaptability to the new life demands which was caused by the old buildings.
The first step of the transformation is to rearrange the original space and organize the sequence relationships between both public and private spaces.
However, the ancient Beijing Hutong mostly are adopted by public toilets, which are obviously inconvenient for people today.
Therefore, the second step in the transformation is to solve the problems of public toilets.
The concept of “glass boxes” is embedded in the old buildings, the transparent glass curtain walls ensure adequate lighting throughout the day, therefore the lighting efficiency of small spaces is greatly improved.
At the same time, large windows can maximize the landscape value of the ancient Hutong buildings.
The use of glass boxes will break the barrier and bring more possibilities to different attributes of spaces.
Base on the characteristics of the glass, the box forms a strong contrast with the old bricks, thus metaphorizing the conflict and symbiosis between the historical and modern era.
The owner of the house lives at the end of Hutong with her husband, daughter and their cat.
Only 25 square meters of space are available for their daily living, work, study, and entertainment.
Through ingenious design techniques, we need to solve the problems of lighting, independent toilets, and interactive public area in small spaces.
While meeting the living needs of this three-member family, we inject new energy and lifestyles into the old house.
While stepping into the house, the first thing the architects saw is the combined area of both the living room and the kitchen, by using white as the majority color of the area, it makes the whole space indeed more spacious, bright, and tidy.
Customized built-in storage shelves integrate the two spaces and make full use of the built-in storage space.
Simple lines perfectly hide the essential appliances in life, such as washing machines, lampblack machines, and other large furniture.
Storage shelves are placed on one side of the room and allow the open atrium to be the public area of the household. The combination of white and natural light makes the whole space brighter and warmer.
White is still selected as main color of the master bedroom area, while pulley tracks are installed to separate with other functional spaces and therefore it solved the privacy problem.
By using the curtain as an outer shell, the texture of the space and the volume of the atmosphere have been improved.
The bathroom area is paved by white bricks, which indicates concise, bright, and modern. The white bricks are neatly arranged to reflect the elegance of the design.
The architects also dug and built a bathtub for the family to experience the spa treatment.
The bathroom went straight up to the roof and a fully automatic skylight was installed above the roof.
The bathroom use refractive light from white bricks to improve its brightness and texture during the day.
When night falls, family members can also enjoy the night scenery.
Simple and slender stairs divide the upper and lower spaces of the house.
Project: Transparent Hutong No.3
Architects: DAGA Architects
Lead Architect: Jianghai Shen
Design Team: Shaoyi Li, Xiaohan Wang, and Aili Yin
Client: Private
Photographers: Wu Tou
