Bejing, China
“With the continuous changes of reflection and the surrounding environment, the mirrored courtyard shows a rapidly changing beauty,” DAGA Architects said.
“Each moment is unique and, just like time, cannot be recorded but can only be felt.”
DAGA Architects modernize this residence’s interior, which had fallen into a state of disrepair.
The existing timber structure was strengthened and the original facade was replaced with the glass curtain wall.
This small courtyard is the house where the owner lived with her grandparents when she was a child.
Due to years of wandering, the house has been dilapidated, and all kinds of childhood memories have gone with it.
Now she wants to move back to hutong.
But the current situation of the house is no longer suitable for living.
The purpose of this renovation is to create a living space suitable for the modern lifestyle for the client and to awaken the life marks of those hutongs that have been disappeared.
Mirror glass is used on the ground and walls of the yard.
The unique reflectivity of the material allows the surrounding hutongs, trees, and sky to be reflected on the ground of the yard, which brings more possibilities to space.
This kind of interaction between virtual and reality is more prominent. People in the scene, people also in the mirror, in the layered reflection and transparent contrast, give people a sense of space experience like a dream.
The natural environment of specular reflection is changing all the time, and the combination with the mirror forms a kind of effect similar to “kaleidoscope.”
The English name Kaleidoscope is a collection of Greek words such as Kalos(beautiful), Eidos (shape), and Scope (watch). In fact, it also summarizes several major features of the kaleidoscope.
The small courtyard is only about 12 planes, showing a long and narrow shape.
The glass mirrors of the ground and walls enlarge the area of the courtyard visually.
When the owner steps into the door, she will be surrounded by the perspective effect of specular reflection, which increases the permeability of the space and gives people a double landscape experience.
“Renovation is not the maintenance and reproduction of old buildings,” the studio stated, “but to superimpose a new lifestyle with the old history and create a new contrast and integration. Only innovation can inject new vitality into old buildings.”
The Baochao Hutong Mirror Yard project involved just 14 days of construction time-on-site, with a large team helping to transform the siheyuan into a dwelling designed for modern living.
Project: The Mirror Courtyard in Baochao Hutong
Architects: DAGA Architects
Client: Private
