Text description provided by the architects. Foreword: There is a newly refurbished villa named Pines House, hiding in the hills at the altitude of 700 meters in Bamu Field, Jiande Town, Zhejiang Province in China. It has transformed from the foundation of its owner’s ancestral estate, meaning to cherish the owner’s childhood memory of beautiful moonlight coming through the pine trees in the front courtyard.

Main entrance. Image

The origin: The property owner comes back to the village to bring back the prosperity to the old house, with the help of a design team.

Site plan

Challenges: Reconstructing two old mud huts and adding three new houses have three major challenges. First, the mud hut almost falls down, and it is very dark inside. Second, the limited movement flow in the architecture and surrounds. Third, a balance between the old and the new.

Loft of annex building. Image

Solutions: The design team uses steel frame structure to reinforce the weak mud walls, and adds huge glass French windows in-between with risen eaves, to deal with the structure stress issue and insufficient light problem. Also, they allocate new buildings accordingly based on the actual context.

Room of main building. Image

Thoughtfully locate all the room entrances at the back side of the building to keep the privacy. Lastly, designers honestly keep the original walls and simply take local wood, rocks and former utensils to strengthen as well as decorate the house, which creates a respectful connection between housing and nature.

Main building. Image

Epilogue: The owner has a dream, and we design the best way to make it come true.

Back view. Image © Aogovision

• Architects

  The Design Institute of Landscape and Architecture China Academy of Art

• Location

  Bamu Field, Sandu Jiande Town, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

• Category

  Renovation

• Architect in Charge

  Zhiyong Huang

• Design Team

  Dong Zheng (architecture design), Zhigang Wang (interior design), Yue Chou (landscape design)

• Client

  Xiaobin Zhu

• Lighting Consultant

  CDN Lighting, Pinglan Yang

• Area

  6000.0 m2

• Project Year

  2018

• Photographs

  Aogovision, Qiansu Photography Studio