Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO

Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO
  • Chief Designers: Wenqiang Han, Xiaoming Li
  • Design Team: Tonghui Wang, Tao Huang, Chenhan Wen
  • City: Beijing
  • Country: China
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Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Windows, Door, Facade, Column
Entrance. Image © Ning Wang

Text description provided by the architects. ARCHSTUDIO transformed a small individual building situated in an old hutong neighborhood of Beijing. Due to historic reasons, there are many individual buildings in Beijing's old districts, apart from traditional courtyard dwellings (Siheyuan) and big messy courtyards (Dazayuan). The design team replaced the original flat roof with a pitched structure, and reduced the architectural volume to integrate it into the surrounding built environment.

Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Windows, Door, Chair, Facade
Terrace. Image © Qiang Hong

Mainly functioning as a multi-brand boutique, the building can accommodate a variety of activities such as exhibitions, products selling and dining, and is also available for activity venue rental. 

Diagram of yards and interior space

The main concept of the design is to build indoor-outdoor connections through mirrors and yards, so as to create infinite field of vision in the limited space and turn the architecture into a "garden" featuring diversified scenes and experiences. Three yards connect the interior spaces, and bring in ample sunshine and greenery. Walking through a daylight-filled yard, it arrives at the first floor, where furniture and some other products are displayed and sold.

Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Image 4 of 37
© Ning Wang
Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Image 10 of 37
Garments display area. Image © Ning Wang

A large area of the space is finished with mirrors, which produce multiple reflections of people, objects, furniture and plants and generate an interactive relationship between the "real" and the "reflected". The staircase, complemented by a 6-meter-high vertical plant wall, zigzag upwards to the second floor, the attic.

Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Image 13 of 37
1F. Image © Ning Wang
Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Image 14 of 37
Staircase. Image © Ning Wang

The kitchen and the dining table are constructed with terrazzo, together forming a "L" shape, which enables the close interaction between the chef and dinners. There are two terraces respectively situated on the north and south side of 2F, allowing indoor activities to be extended outdoors freely. The basement was repurposed into an area for displaying and selling garment, shoes and hats.

Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Glass
Garments display area. Image © Ning Wang
Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Image 18 of 37
Garments display area. Image © Ning Wang

The gleaming floor serves as the display stand for hats, shoes and other items, and also brightens the underground space. Well-selected clothes are hung in a mirror-filled space, which produces playful interaction between people and objects. The design team adopted an intelligent lighting system in the entire space, and embedded variable lights into mirror-clad spaces, with a view to meeting the needs for different activities and settings.

Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Garden
Yard. Image © Qiang Hong
Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO - Image 19 of 37
Display Area. Image © Qiang Hong

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Project location

Address:No. 58, Dongsi 11 Tiao, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 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: "Mirror Garden / ARCHSTUDIO" 20 Jun 2019. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/919286/mirror-garden-archstudio> ISSN 0719-8884

1F. Image © Ning Wang

镜花园 / 建筑营设计工作室

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