Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE

Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick
Courtesy of Knowspace

Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, FacadeArtist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Interior Photography, Brick, FacadeArtist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior Photography, Windows, FacadeArtist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior PhotographyArtist Studios / KNOWSPACE - More Images+ 12

  • Architects: KNOWSPACE
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  1488
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2013
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Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade
Courtesy of Knowspace

Text description provided by the architects. Two renowned Chinese painters decide to move to the outskirts of Beijing to the artist village Songzhuang in order to live and work in the quiet countryside and in the neighborhood of many fellow artists. The design for the studio houses departs from the traditional Chinese Courtyard House Type – not so much in terms of its representation or construction principles, but more in terms of aspects of its spatial performance, namely shelter (shielded outdoor space within the structure and figure), introversion (all openings open towards the inside, not towards the street), degrees of privacy (gradated levels of privacy through the succession of courtyards), orientation (main living spaces with south orientation). These are examined and translated into an architectural Prototype that reconciled 3 different juxtapositions: the inside and the outside, the working and the living, the individual and the collective.

Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade
Courtesy of Knowspace
Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Image 13 of 17
Ground Floor Plan
Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade
Courtesy of Knowspace

The adaptive figures of the buildings and their specific spatial configurations create differentiated courtyards/ outdoor spaces. The walled exterior shields the building from the outside world, while on the interior the spaces open up into the courtyards. The design task is characterized by 2 different programs, namely working and living, that are reconciled in one plot by means of The programmatic distribution executed by the prototype clearly separates these 2 different programs, yet it allows for complex relationships between both to happen through the courtyard spaces. The latter provide the choice of mutual linkage and separation both in temporal as well as spatial terms.

Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
Courtesy of Knowspace

As the one given plot has to accommodate the needs of 2 different owners, the question of coexistence between the individual expression and the collective shared spatial experience play a decisive role for the design. The operative figure of the adaptive prototype caters to this juxtaposition of privacy and individuality on the one hand, and collectivity and publicity on the other, by providing a gradation of differentiated outdoor spaces, that range from private to shared and public ones.

Originally published on 14 September, 2013

Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE - Exterior Photography
Courtesy of Knowspace

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Project location

Address:Song Chuan Nan Lu, Kunshan Shi, Suzhou Shi, Jiangsu Sheng, China

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Artist Studios / KNOWSPACE" 09 Sep 2019. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/426809/artist-studios-knowspace> ISSN 0719-8884

Courtesy of Knowspace

北京宋庄艺术家工作室 / Knowspace

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