Introduction
The site of this project is located in a historical and cultural district in Fucheng Men in which the area contains 33 traditional blocks. The project area covers approximately 37 hectares, with a gross floor area of 242,000 and about 5600 households, including 16,000 registered citizens and 13,000 inhabitants. In this area elderlies make up 19% of the residents and immigrants make up almost 50% of the population in the region respectively. The area contains 807 courtyards, remaining over 4000 houses while 70% of them are in poor conditions. Thus in this historical block, both the living quality and building quality need urgent improvements and its cultural values will therefore be reevaluated and upgraded.
Reason to Be Selected
Under the current context of Beijing’s promotion of the overall protection and revitalisation of the old city, many architects are involved in renovation projects of single courtyard or buildings linking the real needs of the city’s citizens with new forms of media in order to promote new ways of thinking and exploring the city
Highlights:
In this way, the living qualities of the citizens are improved while preserving and continuing the historical chain of the city’s culture.Details
Building renovations projects have to first solve the existing problems of the building. In this project the aim is to solve the following issues:
Recommended
During the renovation process, the continuous occurrence of accidental discoveries always brings new design ideas.
The old window frames are kept and reorganised and reused for different rooms, hence preserving the vintage spatial atmosphere within the courtyard. Another vintage material that has been kept is a large number of old grey tiles, in which their age vary from a few hundred years old to the last century.
Conclusions
These grey tiles are used for building the central staircase tower in the middle of the courtyard. Contemporary materials such as glass brick are embedded in it in order to create the “bridge” between the past and the present, achieving the continuation of spatial memory. Although the removed parts of the building are all structures built illegally, yet they also perform important parts in the history of the courtyard and is also a part of the city’s memory.
| Lat: | 39.46 |
| Lng: | 115.72 |
| Type: | |
| Region: | Asia |
| Scale: | Building |
| Field: | Residence |
| City: | Beijing |