Text description provided by the architects. The project is located in a quiet hutong in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It was reconstructed from a quadrangle that was renovated in recent years. The facade has not changed. The refurbished building retains the original layout, it consists of two entrance yards and 13 main rooms. The second entrance has two large trees. The huge canopy will cover the entire yard in the spring and summer seasons. The branches of the big tree cast a staggered shadow on the brick wall In winter,.

Public courtyard. Image

The building has ten rooms in the 280-square-meter building area. how to maximize the space quality in an extremely compact layout. The courtyard is a pragmatic strategy and a discussion of the public and private boundaries of the function of the courtyard.

Roof plan

Diagram about renovation

The courtyard is the core of the traditional courtyard life. The room is open to the inner courtyard. The translucent traditional wooden doors and windows not only solve the indoor lighting but also give the interior a part of privacy, but we hopes that each room has privacy and good lighting, and picturesque scenery after the transformation. Therefore, the design has added ten small courtyards in the original two large yards. The architect adjusted the relationship between the original building and courtyard to the relationship between the building, the private courtyard, and the public courtyard. Each room is open to the private courtyard, and through the hole in the partion wall, the space becames interesting. An original shared courtyard became a group of courtyards that shared and privately coexisted.

Courtyard after renovation. Image

The 10 yards with different lengths and widths belong to different rooms, the smallest yard is 3 square meters and the largest is 6 square meters. The height of the courtyard wall is 2 meters, which can effectively avoid the sight interference. At the same time, it guides the line of sight upwards and people can enjoy two old trees in the room. The courtyard wall is made of traditional blue bricks, and The mortar joint is about 1 cm, which is the same as that of traditional houses.

Section after renovation

The inner courtyards of No. 2 and No. 10 were originally concrete flat roofs. The architects opened holes on the flat roof to solve the problem of daylighting. A narrow long hole was opened in the second courtyard, and a circular hole was opened in the tenth courtyard. The construction traces of the punching machine are preserved, and the light enters the inner court with the trace of construction.

Restaurant and workspace. Image

The room has a clear structural order, wooden columns and beams were exposed to the outside of wall, the wall is painted in white.

East entrance of workspace. Image

The restaurant and the office area have been expanded to the west side and the attic has been added as an employee’s room in the space. The original wooden column is located inside the space and become the core of the space after transformation.

Viewing public courtyard from room courtyard. Image © Kunpeng Liu

• Architects

  Atelier ZAI

• Location

  Dongshicao Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing, China

• Category

  Renovation

• Design Team

  Kunpeng Liu, Shuyi Huang

• Client

  Dasein

• Area

  280.0 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Kunpeng Liu