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Architects: Ji Architect
- Area: 37 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Hongyue Wang
Text description provided by the architects. Jí Architect, at the request of Party A, remodeled a 37 m2 old house in a Hutong of Beijing. The original dwelling, with a 2.7 m clear height and only one bedroom, turned into a full-featured staff residence with two independent bedrooms.
The house is located on the first floor of a two-story building lining the North Xinhua Street. Though with an exclusive entrance, the house's lighting and ventilation were less than ideal. An open shaft in the rear part of the house cut into the access to the bathroom, a total inconvenience especially on rainy days.
Our solutions and Goals:
1.The shaft was moved northward horizontally by 0.75 m, sparing the room for an indoor passage to the bathroom. The area freed by the move was also transformed to be part of the outdoor courtyard integrated into bedroom
2.Each of the bedrooms was equipped with a bed, a desk, and cabinets for daily living. The space was cleared after the renovation and two large wooden pieces of furniture were placed, it also forming the boundary of the two bedrooms and providing spacious room for storage.
3.A public area was embedded between two bedrooms functioning as a living room, a mini kitchen, a dining room, and a laundry room. A sofa zone shaped by the backspace of bedroom 1 created when the bed of bedroom 1 was raised. Pulling out the table and chairs with wheels under the countertop, the two residents could savor a cup of coffee in serenity
4.Semi –transparent materials and operable elements adopted as part of the boundary of the two bedrooms. The design facilitated the ventilation and creates visual connection between the bedrooms and the public area and endowed residents with full control over their room’s privacy and openness.
In spite of the limited space, we intended to create the comfort and privacy of the two bedrooms while maximizing the possibilities for two residents to communicate and make changes in the blank space. The perfect independence of the two wooden box-like rooms floating in the white space provided residents with an amazing living experience of privacy and freedom.
