Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. The courtyard as the epicentre
17/07/2017.
[Beijing] China
metalocus, SARA NÁJAR
metalocus, SARA NÁJAR
Under the leading 'Transform and Rethink', Hu Yue Studio proposes a rehabilitation of the traditional courtyard houses of China.
Fatty. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Fatty. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Fatty. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
East to west overlook. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
North side courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
North side courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
North side courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
North side courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
North side courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Southside courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Courtyard from west. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Courtyard from living room. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Courtyard from north. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Courtyard from bedroom. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Lighwell inside room. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Dumpling sofa. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Dumpling sofa. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Dumpling sofa. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Long corridor in northside courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Part of the facade. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Entrance to north side courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
North side courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Facade hutong side. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Facade Hutong side. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Main entrance. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Fatty. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Fatty. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Fatty. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Fatty from interior perspective. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Constrast from the original courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Constrast from the original courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Constrast from the original courtyard. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Constrast from the original facade. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio. Photograph © Yang Chaoying and Chen Su.
Site plan. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Site plan. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Constrast from the original floor plan. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Floor plan. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
First floor plan. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Roof plan. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Concept in section. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Constrast from the original house. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Constrast from the original house. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Reconstruction process. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Section. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
Section. Transform and Rethink by Hu Yue Studio.
The Hu Yue Studio project aims to blend the traditional culture of Beijing's courtyard houses with contemporary culture through a series of punctual rehabilitation operations on some residential courtyards.
Description of the project by Hu Yue Studio
Transform and Rethink. This project includes the transformation in No. 8 Courtyard and No. 19 Courtyard, and also an installation in No. 8 Courtyard, on CaochangSitiao, Qianmen, Beijing, China.
Transform. During the transformation, architects concern the daily lives in the normal houses. It makes the courtyard dwellings continue with its ordinary mission after the transformation.
The traditional Beijing courtyard dwelling is designed with a peaceful inner yard and rooms around in good lighting and ventilation condition. However, these characteristics have been disappearing along with the exceeding population expansion and additional construction in chaos.
On the premise of satisfying residents’ basic need in daily life, this project tries the best to make the traditional layout of the courtyard recur in the extremely crowded circumstance. After partially demolishing and extending, it makes each resident enjoy the inner yard space, enough sun light, nice ventilation, as well as the peace of the traditional dwellings. Also, obtain the happiness and dignity of life again.
Rethink. During the transformation process of No. 8 Courtyard and No. 19 Courtyard, we have been ruminating over the role of traditional buildings and its relation to the current city life. We find the conflict between the traditional and contemporary building happens on two aspects, the role and the change.
Fatty - Scale Transformation. There is a 10-meter-high inflatable figure – the fatty, whose height is computative. In the past, the width of Hutong is about 4 to 5 meters, however, now the width of the city-level secondary street is around 30 meters, while the width of the main street goes over 100 meters. As the technology develops, the city scale is becoming larger and larger, therefore the adaptable human scale has been taken place by non-human huge scale. According to the past scale 1.7/5, human height to road width, the height of human should be at least 10.2 meters, based on the contemporary street width (30 meters). Actually, the amount of our living unit has been shrinking down comparing with the past, while the public space and the city scale is such considerable. Hereby, you could see the transformation and the conflict. We hope it could make the visitors a profound think.
Dumplings – Role Transformation. As a kind of traditional food, here, the dumplings become cushion and sofa. It only maintains the profile shape, but the function, scale and material have been changed. This is just the current situation of most traditional culture. What associations does this have for you?
More information
Architects
Hu Yue Studio
Design Team
Hu Yue, Tai Fangqing, Jiang Ran, Wu Hancheng, Zhao Mochao
Location
No.8 and No.19, 4th CaochangHutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Area
435.4m²
Size
Height.- 5 m
Dates
Design.- May 2015 - October 2015
Completion.- December 2015
Hu Yue Studio
Hu Yue Studio is one of the first separated studios in BIAD. BIAD is one of the most well-known brands in the industry of national civil building design which possess splendid achievements and abundant comprehensive technical strength. Huyue Studio have participated and designed a great number of challenging projects in recent years. Among them, Beijing Wukesong Stadium, Wukesong baseball field, the UBPA office building of Shanghai World Expo, renovation of the Qingpu Stadium in Shanghai, Integrated Service Center of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, etc. have won the Beijing, industry and national level of awards respectively. Meanwhile, the studio take part in the 1st China International Architectural Biennial, the 1st Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, Shanghai West Bund Architectural Biennial. Moreover, the studio have gone to Germany, Belgium and England for International Architectural exhibition. Leading by the master of National Survey and Design, Huyue, a young team with strong innovation ability and project implementation has been formed.
Yue Hu, the master of survey and design in China, chief architect of Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) and principal architect of Yue Hu Architecture Studio, has directed diverse types of public building designs in twenty years, who has won a number of national, ministerial and provincial levels of awards. While working on the practice of design, he focuses on the theory of architectural design and application of new materials as well. His articles have been widely published in distinct publications. His research has been devoted to methodology of architectural design in recent years.
Fangqing Tai, associate chief architect of Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) and associate director of Yue Hu Architecture Studio. Pursuing the innovation during the design, she also concentrates the practice in applying the design theory and new materials. Meanwhile, for the purpose of keeping a high level of production through the whole team, she invests plenty of time in studying management. As one of the project managers, she organizes and completes a large number of design workings of large-scale projects (e.g. Beijing Wukesong Cultural and Sports Center (BWCSC), which is the key project of Olympic Games, Yujiapu first financial area ‘Block 03-22’ in Binhai New Area of Tianjin. She has won several national, ministerial and provincial levels of awards such as gold award of national excellent project survey and design, Tien-yow Jeme Civil Engineering Prize, etc.
Ran Jiang, young architect, graduated from Tongji University
Hancheng Wu, young architect, graduated from Nanjing University
Mochao Zhao, young architect, graduated from Hunan University.
Yue Hu, the master of survey and design in China, chief architect of Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) and principal architect of Yue Hu Architecture Studio, has directed diverse types of public building designs in twenty years, who has won a number of national, ministerial and provincial levels of awards. While working on the practice of design, he focuses on the theory of architectural design and application of new materials as well. His articles have been widely published in distinct publications. His research has been devoted to methodology of architectural design in recent years.
Fangqing Tai, associate chief architect of Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) and associate director of Yue Hu Architecture Studio. Pursuing the innovation during the design, she also concentrates the practice in applying the design theory and new materials. Meanwhile, for the purpose of keeping a high level of production through the whole team, she invests plenty of time in studying management. As one of the project managers, she organizes and completes a large number of design workings of large-scale projects (e.g. Beijing Wukesong Cultural and Sports Center (BWCSC), which is the key project of Olympic Games, Yujiapu first financial area ‘Block 03-22’ in Binhai New Area of Tianjin. She has won several national, ministerial and provincial levels of awards such as gold award of national excellent project survey and design, Tien-yow Jeme Civil Engineering Prize, etc.
Ran Jiang, young architect, graduated from Tongji University
Hancheng Wu, young architect, graduated from Nanjing University
Mochao Zhao, young architect, graduated from Hunan University.
