China Wants to Bulldoze Old Neighborhoods to Revive the Economy https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/business/china-urban-villages-rebuilding.html?smid=nytcore-android-share #china #beijing already destroyed its #hutongs how did that work out

DAGA Architects adds mirrored courtyard to traditional hutong house

Chinese studio DAGA Architects has renovated and modernised a traditional hutong residence in Beijing's Dongcheng district, adding mirrors to the walls and floor of the entrance courtyard to make the space feel larger.

The project is shortlisted in the housing category of 2021's Dezeen Awards and represents an innovative take on the modernisation of these traditional courtyard dwellings.

The project is called Baochao Hutong Mirror Yard

Beijing's hutongs are narrow alleys lined by single-storey courtyard houses called siheyuan. The houses were often joined together to create a hutong, with several hutongs then combining to form a neighbourhood.

DAGA Architects' project is one of numerous recent attempts to revitalise neglected hutong buildings, including a hotel designed by Fon Studio and a house with curving glass walls by Arch Studio.

DAGA Architects revamped a traditional hutong house

This siheyuan's owner wished to return to the house in which she was raised by her grandparents, but over the years the building had become dilapidated and was in need of comprehensive renovations.

One of the key interventions involved transforming the property's narrow courtyard, which is concealed behind a wooden door facing the street and extends through the centre of the house.

The house features a narrow mirrored courtyard

The architects installed mirrored panels on the floor and a wall at the end of the passage to create the illusion of a much larger space.

The mirrored surfaces reflect the sky and surrounding buildings, as well as the building's interior, which is visible through new full-height glazed walls.

Surroundings are reflected in the mirrored surfaces

"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."

The project also involved modernising the 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.

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The house features an open kitchen, dining and living space, as well as a bathroom on one side of the courtyard. Each of the spaces, including the bathroom, is lined with glazing to draw in daylight from the adjacent courtyard.

"The transparent curtain wall adds daylight to the interior space," the studio added, "allowing the line of sight to penetrate each other on both sides of the courtyard, creating an extroverted and introverted courtyard space."

The house features an open living space

On the opposite side of the central passage is a minimalist bedroom and en-suite bathroom, featuring a black and white interior intended to create a calming and tranquil feel.

DAGA Architects believes that the act of renovation and urban renewal should focus on new materials and approaches to design, rather than the straightforward preservation of buildings such as outdated hutong houses.

A minimalist bedroom was designed to encourage tranquility

"Renovation is not the maintenance and reproduction of old buildings," the studio claimed, "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.

The photography is byJin Weiqi.

The post DAGA Architects adds mirrored courtyard to traditional hutong house appeared first on Dezeen.

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Fon Studio transforms Beijing hutong into hotel with interior courtyard

Terrazzo, wood panelling and dark red steel feature throughout this renovated hotel in a Beijing hutong, designed by Fon Studio to echo the atmospheric quality of the surrounding alleyways.

The 800-square-metre Well Well Well Hotel is set inside a hutong – a kind of narrow alleyway found in the city's traditional neighbourhoods and formed by lines of single-storey courtyard residences.

Above: the Well Well Well Hotel is located inside one of Beijing's traditional hutongs. Top image: the interior features dark red steel and wood panelling

Its ground floor and newly added first floor accommodate a dense layout of 13 guest rooms, arranged around a central double-height courtyard that is covered with a large gabled wooden roof.

When Fon Studio took over the project, the building was already under construction and had previously undergone several renovations.

Partially remodelled doors and window frames were matched to the building's original structure

"Initially, the original decoration was demolished," explained the local studio.

"We were attracted by the sophisticated wooden roof structure of this old house, which increased the richness and visual characteristics of the space."

A gabled wooden roof covers the central courtyard

The building's original roof is supported by dark red columns of reinforced steel, which also prop up the new first floor and the terrazzo staircase that can be used to access it via the courtyard.

"The large courtyard is not common in hutong houses," said Fon Studio, which was established by architects Jin Bo'an, Li Hongzhen and Luo Shuanghua in 2016.

"The orderly interior courtyard originally belonged to a traditional inn, decorated in every corner with the most popular Chinese elements."

Clerestory windows encircle the top of the courtyard space on three sides, providing views over the tiled roofs of the surrounding buildings.

Both floors accommodate seating areas for guests and small corners for socialising and relaxing.

Fon Studio wanted the hotel's new additions – including partially remodelled doors and window frames – to be in keeping with the building's original structure and proportions.

The new first floor can be accessed via a red steel and terrazzo staircase

"We respected the aesthetic style and structural logic of the original old building and performed a simple redesign to make it not much different," the studio told Dezeen.

"The structure of the staircase naturally becomes a visual focus in the space but its turning form and scale is still integrated into the overall atmosphere."

Guest rooms are located on both the ground and the first floor

"In the way of atmosphere creation, the main visual colours are a combination of wooden logs and dark red under different grey textures," the studio added.

"It also abstracts and organises people's intuitive feelings in the alley – simple and delicate."

Wooden headboards in the guest rooms create a sense of warmth

Walls are finished in textured grey cement and the compact rooms were designed to create a "simple and warm feeling".

Other hutong renovation projects include a specialist fan shop with a minimalist oak-lined interior and a teahouse with porthole windows set in a landscape of white gravel, terrazzo and marble.

Photography is by Fon Studio.

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