Article source: Evolution Design 

Background Information

The project is situated in ChangGe Village, Daxing County, in Beijing’s southwestern suburb. Subject of rebuild is a worn-out farm house built in the early 1970’s, with its original wood-brick structure commonly seen in north China’s country side. Before the remodel, inside the dim and shabby house (or a shack to be more exact), walls were coking dark, covered by more than 40 years of hard cooking smokes & ashes. The place had no water supply nor a restroom – its residents, a senior farm couple, needed to walk out 100m around the house to get to the closest loo in the neighborhood. The house’s long but narrow courtyard facing south functioned as a pathway for the family’s only transport vehicle, a three-wheeler, which was inconveniently parked in a dead end. Even worse, interior floor elevation of the house was almost 20 cm lower than the courtyard, turning the house into a flooding pond whenever it rained, a safety threat to the entire building structure. Ironically, the area was troubled by water shortage – water gets cut off almost daily, sometimes during peak evening hours.

Image Courtesy © Xiazhi

• Architects: Evolution Design
• Project: ChangGe Village Farm House Remodel Project
• Location: Changge, Beijing, China
• Photography: Xiazhi
• Designer: Ray Jin, Teng Guo
• Site Area: 210 m2
• Total Floor Area: 130 m2
• Design Phase: May, 2015
• Complete: July, 2015

(more…)