Stones with Hooks — When the crowds fade away, we can still find traces of the summer in the riverbed. The riverbed has both shallow and deep sections; along the side adjacent to the road, the riverbed has been artificially raised and enclosed with pebbles to form “waterfront private spaces”. When we went down to the riverbank, we noticed that many of the pebbles around these boxes had iron hooks attached. It was easy to deduce that the hooks were installed by the villagers – so that the canopies could be firmly tied to the pebbles during the peak season.

The villagers did not make any rigid, permanent modifications to the river channel cross-section. Instead, they used the local, non-engineering method of moving pebbles to divide the riverbed into functional zones: a safe, shallow recreational area and a deeper, farther flood discharge area. The waterfront spaces, built flexibly with local materials, can be easily restored even after a flash flood – all it takes is piling up the stones again to revive the consumer scene. Movable, sustainable, and low-impact – this is truly a wonderful example of “traceless stream economy” and collective local construction.

Sunshade, Stream Play and River Crossing — There was no need for excessive “groundless” planning; the site itself is alive, and it had already outlined the task at hand: Xialang is beautiful, and it would be even more beautiful with the addition of a canopy for shade, a few steps for easy access to the water, and a line of stepping stones for crossing the river. The operator of the future café on the site had no high requirements for the building area – the space could be accommodated within the footprint of the existing public toilet. This left the remaining outdoor area as the focus of our concept.

First, let’s look at the canopy. Pebbles serve as the structural foundation for the canopies rented out by the villagers. For the “The Grand Canopy”, we decided to use the main structure of the toilet: four partition walls were built to enclose 8 structural columns, forming the higher foundation on one side of the canopy. On the side of the existing dam, four corresponding low piers were built to form the foundation on the other side. Cables were strung between these two foundations – one high, one low, one north, one south – to complete the structural construction of the canopy.

In the sweltering summer, the canopy is unfolded to welcome tourists; during typhoons or rainy days, it is retracted to ensure safety; in the off-seasons of autumn and winter, it is taken down to facilitate maintenance – and there is no need to apply for additional construction quotas. This flexible construction and operation logic takes from the site and gives back to the site. Next, let’s look at the ground landscape. After meeting the requirements of the river’s blue line setback and water conservancy elevation, we designed the ground projection area of the canopy as the starting point for accessing the stepping stones – an enlarged riverbank platform that acts like a “bridgehead”, accommodating crowds gathering and water-based activities.

Text provided by the architects.

Prefabricated Plugin units are installed directly onto existing floors without altering the original structures. Lightweight, insulated, and self-contained, these units offer year-round comfort while maintaining the spatial logic and material integrity of the buildings. Timber frames, brick walls, and tiled roofs remain untouched.
At Courtyard C34, three artists share a triangular site comprising two porcelain workshops and two small dwellings. One structure becomes a communal kitchen, while the others house individual Plugin configurations combining sleeping, working, and bathroom spaces. Sloped roofs and integrated HVAC systems respond to daylight and climate conditions. In Courtyard H20, a single artist inhabits a studio fitted with a mezzanine bedroom, flexible workspace, and openable façades that reconnect interior and courtyard. Courtyard P58 accommodates three artist studios within a long workshop, each with a ground-floor office and a sleeping loft above. A neighboring building is reimagined as a public gallery and gathering space, with a zig-zag layout that balances openness and privacy. At Yanghua Lane, a newly built café anchors a courtyard framed by three historic studios and an L-shaped residence. Multiple Plugin units support group residencies and collaborative use, forming a micro-community embedded within the historic district.

Across all four sites, the Plugin system adapts to diverse spatial conditions while maintaining a coherent architectural language. Its prefabricated modular panel system allows for variation in size, material, and detailing, accommodating irregular geometries and evolving programmatic needs. The result is a family of interventions that are distinct yet cohesive, responsive to their contexts while clearly part of a unified strategy.

While earlier work in the district introduced a civic landmark and public gathering space, this phase extends the transformation into the neighborhood’s interiors, activating underused spaces and stitching new life into the rhythms of daily activity. By working within the architectural grain of Jingdezhen’s porcelain heritage, Porcelain Studios Plugin Revival offers a replicable and respectful model for architectural reuse, one that fosters continuity between making, living, and memory.

Text provided by the architects.

To create a natural texture in the building, materials such as washed stone, gravel concrete, granite cubes, textured paint and marine plywood are juxtaposed to infuse the building with life and a natural vibe.
Rough washed stone is used for the indoor bar counter, seating, and flooring, creating a simple, natural aesthetic. The gravel concrete flooring and gray washed walls complement each other, enhancing the outdoor feel of the space. The rough textures provide a non-slip surface for pets, while also offering the durability and stain resistance akin to outdoor natural materials. The retail display walls and movable furniture system are constructed using a collage of marine plywood panels, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere that complements the wooden ceiling. The clever selection of these materials, along with their natural weathering over time, will further enhance the building’s texture.

The design team incorporated a pet-friendly ramp as a visual symbol, integrating it with the architectural space’s functionality to create a memorable brand identity. The graphic elements, designed with a three-dimension feel and a sense of volume, further articulate the space’s iconic and fun identity. Various super visual symbols, crafted by the graphic design, seamlessly echo the concept of a shared space between people and pets. The three-dimensional visual design enriches the formal language in this community space. Blending functionality and symbolism, these symbols contribute to a more diverse and multi-dimensional brand image. The brand’s visual identity is further strengthened by using pet-sensitive colors, such as blue and yellow, which convey a lighthearted and fashionable vibe through the interplay of lines and planes. Combining brand symbols with space functionality, the design team crafted a series of branding materials, signage, graphics, and installations. A pet map at the entrance helps visitors better understand the spatial functions, while the door handle and business hours information are cleverly arranged to create an engaging three-dimensional graphic. This comprehensive brand design enhances the space with a stronger and more cohesive brand identity.

By cleverly utilizing the building’s height, the design team creates a two-story space that ensures brightness and transparency while diversifying the spatial functions. The overall layout is composed of three sections: the cafe at the entrance, the activity area in the middle, and the functional area at the back. This maintains the relative independence of each functional space, and also ensures an orderly circulation.

The cafe at the entrance is conceived as a landscaped courtyard, creating a continuous corridor that breaks the boundary between interior and exterior. A semi-enclosed landscape entrance is formed around a big tree, with the entire area wrapped in washed stones. These natural textures continually awaken the vitality in pets, bringing fresh energy into the space.

The middle activity area retains the original spatial structure, with a ramp connecting the pet activity areas on the first and second floors, forming a natural hillside that seamlessly integrates with the entrance corridor. The park-style bench seating arrangement maximizes space for pet activities. Natural light filters through the building interior from morning to dusk, creating a dynamic play of light and shadow throughout the day.

The functional area at the back consists of several stacked boxes. The first level accommodates the pet hotel and grooming rooms, with capacitive glass partitions that can be flexibly adjusted to display the grooming room’s work status as needed. The second level features office spaces and a pet photography studio, with the offices offering a panoramic view of the entire space for improved communication and management.

The furniture details within the space are thoughtfully crafted to provide a sense of security for pets visiting for the first time. Space is intentionally left under the seating areas to give small animals a safe spot to settle in and ease their anxiety in an unfamiliar environment. The suspended design beneath the movable central bench minimizes obstacles during play, allowing pets the freedom to run or rest.

Fixed small round tables, designed with the function of anchoring dog leashes, free pet owners’ hands, enabling them to chat and enjoy food at ease. The wall features pegboards, which serve both as retail displays and decorative elements. The space’s flexibility is further enhanced by fully movable furniture, allowing for easy reconfiguration to suit different pet-themed needs.

Text provided by the architects.

The hot spring functional spaces are vertically layered in the tower on the west side, and the transportation and service program are set in the east core, connected by corridor-like bridge on each floor. The programs are vertically stacked up for reducing the building footprint and as well, creating a series of unique spatial experiences at different levels. As the visitors ascend, new relationships between the surrounding trees, rock cliff, and distant mountain landscape are respectively highlighted.

We allocated the main functions on three levels. An integrated teak box anchors the center space of the first floor to accommodate the reception, storage, locker room and showering functions before entering the bath. The second floor is a transparent relaxation lounge enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass on all sides, located among the most-lush part of the poplar tree canopies. When the weather is favorable, the upper windows can be opened, introducing the fresh natural air, framing splendor natural scenery throughout the seasons.
The third-floor bath pools, at different temperatures and water treatments are distributed under eight light wells. When the skylight passes through the 8-meter-high wells, it becomes soft and quiet, diffused by the bush-hammered concrete. Through strip windows above the water surface on the west facade, people can choose to immerse themselves in the water or have a glimpse of the nearby valley cliffs with the flourishing treetop enveloping the building.

Text provided by the architect.

The design includes a few deserted agricultural buildings, such as utility rooms, cowsheds and barns. The design team hopes to transform the original buildings into a bookstore which provides space for tourists to learn about the history and culture of the village. Meanwhile, it also provide locals, especially children, with a place to get knowledge from the outside world. It is a great opportunity to indicate a well-known Chinese tradition called “Cultivation and reading is to bequeath to the family”.

‘Guang Yue Granary Bookstore’ and ‘Jing Ya Granary Bookstore’

In the early phase of site analysis, designers found that utility room and cowshed are very different in terms of spatial identity. The utility room is relatively tall with accommodated interiors , while the cowsheds are lower and darker. Several cowsheds are separated by rubble walls and second floors are used for storing forage originally.

Spatial differences and ‘flaws’ bring about the difficulty of retrofitting these existing spaces. In the mean time, it seems to be a dramatic element for reforming architectural narrative, which is just an interesting moment for the project. By using the characteristics of the original space, the design team defined the new building as a combination of ‘Live and Calm’ .

‘Live’ refers to the sales space in Boostore transformed by utility room. It is relatively active to be here when exchanging books and sales activities happen periodically. Also, cultural products designed by the team are sold at this corner. Reading Bar is regarded as a cultural window connecting the village to the world outside. Visitors can get to know more about the village while local residents see the outside from a physical window(a full height glass door facing to the village ) and psychological one. It is called ‘Guang-Yue Granary Bookstore’ .

In the opposite of the building, the original surface across the stream is a solid wall with a high window on it. However, the landscape is so nice to be seen from the building that designer added a platform inside, on which people enjoy the view. This design principle maintains the existing relationship between interior and exterior. Thus, when people stay inside, stream is kept invisible for enjoying sound only. If visitors still wants to see the stream, one step on the platform makes it a great difference. A full-height glass window is embedded in the other side of the building to generate a new relationship with its’ neighbor, the village, to provide a great solution for better natural lights.

‘Calm’ refer to reading and meditation, named ‘Jing-Ya’. It is transformed from former cowsheds. The identity of this space, connected but separated from top to bottom, is special to be kept. The lower level enclosed by rubble used to be dark and narrow living space for cow, while narrow wood-made upper level were used for forage. Wood structure seats on rubble part. Two levels are separated spatially (entrance are separated) but connected logically (cow on the bottom eats forage)in function.

Text provided by the architect.

This project is located along the old water channel in the northern part of the village. The old water channel, constructed in the 1960s for irrigation, stands abandoned today. The surroundings of the aqueduct are naturally wild and lush, creating a unique genius loci. During the initial design phase, we conducted surveys with villagers, and “memory’ was the most frequently mentioned word. These memories included recollections of the collective construction of the old water channel and fond memories of playing around the channel during childhood. Additionally, villagers expressed the need for a space to eat and seek shade during the summer. Therefore, we decided to transform this aqueduct into a comfortable public covered bridge for daily use.

To cherish the collective memory of the village, we preserved the original aqueduct, maintaining its original structure and the traces of time imprinted on its surface. On the body of the old aqueduct, we attached a lightweight wooden bridge body. The use of wood not only pays homage to the local tradition of Huizhou architecture but also enhances the intimacy between the new infrastructure and the villagers.

“The Covered Bridge on Aqueduct” utilizes prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT), a new material that offers advantages such as uniform stress distribution, high strength-to-weight ratio, and environmental friendliness. The bridge structure consists of 19 small cross-sectional interlocking units, forming a ribbed system intertwined with the old aqueduct. Each structural unit is composed of two independent X-shaped columns that support their respective roofs.

The roof employs lightweight corrugated panels, resting on the wooden structure. Inside the bridge, there are seats and two rows of reclining chairs, providing villagers with different options for resting and enjoying the view. In terms of construction, all components of the bridge can be lifted by hand, avoiding the need for large construction tools. All joints between wooden components are connected with bolts for easy on-site assembly.

Upon completion, the bridge serves as a respectful tribute and a reminder of a specific history in the village. It also provides a nurturing and gathering space for the village’s future, injecting vitality and vigor into the public life of Fengwu Village.

Text provided by the architect.

The owner envisioned developing a campsite here, using terraced steps to set up several groups of tents.To serve the campsite, fixed facilities were needed on the platform. However, due to construction restrictions, the early randomly erected sheds had already defined the outline of the new buildings.

For architects eager to freely sketch blueprints, this was initially disheartening. Yet, upon closer examination of these sheds, it became clear that the workers were experts in mountain living. They knew where the foundation was stable, where more sunlight could be welcomed, and where one could hide from the howling mountain winds. Furthermore, they deeply valued the chestnut trees on the platform, skillfully weaving the sheds in and out of the trees.

Inspired by this, we reimagined the site.The sight of the ground covered in chestnut husks during autumn was particularly striking – a rare, abundant expression of the Yanshan region. Thus, we named the new structure “Full Chestnut Terrace.” In ancient China, “terrace” was a vaguely defined architectural concept. It could be a place for people to view scenery or a way for them to engage with it. We sought to re-establish the connection between people and the landscape amidst the remnants of the original sheds.

In some respects, the construction of these sheds was quite arbitrary. For instance, the roof was constructed to align with the prevailing direction of rain and snow, opting for the slope that allowed the most efficient drainage. As for the materials, a simple and practical approach was adopted. Leftovers of other projects were used to assemble the façade. However, these expedients resulted in an unexpected lightness and simplicity, forging a sense of freedom in this mountain architecture. There was much to learn here. Thus, we prefer to call the entire process a “reconstruction.”

The western side of the building, before and after the “reconstruction,” where the west wall is a remnant of the Ming Dynasty barrier wall, now detached from the original site

Due to the constraints posed by the mountainous terrain, the entire complex was built with wood, combining the use of timber frames and wooden shear walls within relatively compact building size.

In the timber-framed sections, we deliberately avoided traditional wooden structural forms. For example, the plan used an even number of bays, the façades were asymmetrical, and for the overhanging eaves, we abandoned wooden structures in favor of lighter and more authentic steel construction.

The wooden shear walls were designed to showcase the logic of “envelopment,” endowing the building with a corresponding sense of weight. The upper roofing was refashioned with corrugated metal sheets, reshaping the building’s exterior. The details echo the form language of the original sheds, making this envelopment more in line with the material’s constructional context. We envisaged “Full Chestnut Terrace” as a contemporary wooden structure, with modern technological features as its underlying theme.

When the site was still occupied by sheds, workers would pick up yellow stones from old piles to construct threshold walls and foundations for houses. During the reconstruction, we used old red bricks salvaged from nearby villages and towns to unify the disconnected building units at the ground level. Various slanted walls redressed the building’s outline, stretching between the plateau and the woods, creating a man-made layer distinct from the wooden houses. This bestowed a certain commemorative quality, forming a “relic” of this era.

Over a thousand years ago, the painter Fan Kuan contemplated the wintry mountains and rivers of the North and created “Snowy Cold Forest Landscape.” A millennium later, a similar scene emerged in a valley of the Yanshan Mountains. Rather than deliberate design, this owes more to the original shed builders who found the perfect composition for the architecture.

Artistic conception is a description of the imagination and a habit of viewing that condenses countless experiences. We hoped to bring new forms to the architecture while integrating it with the land in a familiar way. I am particularly fond of the Qing Dynasty painter Li Shizhuo’s “Viewing the Painting.” In the painting, scholars raise their cups, trying to drink with the figure in the painting. The artist arranged the two figures, originally on the same plane, along an upward sloping axis, creating a slight upward gaze. I find this an ingenious way to view scenery. In the spaces of Full Chestnut Terrace, we have embedded many such relationships.

In fact, before Li Shizhuo was born, the poet Nalan Xingde had already been observing the scenery around him. Interestingly, he likely visited the Huanghuacheng area around 1680, his duty being to herd horses for the imperial court. It’s conceivable that he visited the valley below Full Chestnut Terrace, and the chestnut forests on the hillside he saw were probably more lush than what we see today. It was in that year, on an early winter dawn, that he wrote the famous “Dian Jiang Chun · Early View from Huanghuacheng”:

In the wee hours after the first snow,
The snowfall levels with the guardrail in the dawning light.
How boundless is the western wind,
I rise and don my robe to behold the sight.
In this vast expanse,
Unwittingly, I let out a deep, prolonged sigh.
When will dawn come,
As the morning stars are about to fade,
Geese take flight over the expanse of white on high.

I too have waited for dawn atop Full Chestnut Terrace, yet never witnessed geese flying up from distant sandbanks. Sometimes I wonder, how would the twenty-six-year-old poet have reacted if, on that clear morning, he had chanced upon this house among the mountain paths…

Text provided by the architect.

The original brick structure is composed of a main warehouse and three annex buildings, plus a courtyard garden. For projects like this, Neri&Hu’s strategy always begins with a thorough investigation of what parts of the building at present may be kept and restored, while any new additions should not only respect the existing, but also stand in contrast to it, so that a clear distinction may be drawn between old and new.

The design concept is inspired in part by the client’s main product, traditional Chinese style pastries often formed in a decorative mold — the notion that a container may hold or form the shape of its contents within. Here, a new cast concrete object is molded into the old brick shell, its various openings and negative spaces form the main retail, gallery and office spaces. After pouring the concrete and allowing it to cure, specialized craftsmen then bush-hammer it for a soft textural quality that both contrasts with and also compliments the old bricks. In certain moments, the new inner concrete will seep out and appear on the façade to fill in the voids or indicate new access points. The gap spaces between the new object and the original shell become flexible areas for a café and multipurpose lobby. The ground floor contains the exhibition area, the flagship store, the garden and the cafe while the second floor is mainly the head office.

Text provided by the architect.

Site memory: The first arrival was on a cloudy day in April. With hazy mountains in the distance, the two horizontal red brick houses were placed at 60 degrees on different elevations, while the mountains on both sides seem close, giving a strong feeling of being surrounded. Looking along the lap afar from the open space in the site, there is only a very simple view of the distant mountains above the roof. From the on-site memory, two key elements are extracted: the axis of the architecture and the visual angle of the mountain. The new building inherits the original texture and axis, with the aim to retain the memory of the original site. A space is arranged along the axis of the mountainside as the toilet, and a special wall is used to separate the functional and spacial areas. The climbing road passes through the building along the wall for the convenience of tourists, and a reception area with semi-outdoor public space is designed to the left side of the stone wall along the other axis. There are multiple motion lines in the building: one goes up directly along the left side of the building without passing the internal road of the building, while another enters the building before it diverges into multiple paths to go up to the mountain. The visual angle of the mountain is simple through a slanting roof, with a platform on the roof for those who climb high to look far into the surrounding mountains.

Three roofs, one roof truss, and several walls: The architectural design clearly separates the basic elements of the house, the roof, the structure, the walls, and the ground. The functional spaces are distributed under three big roofs, namely the public reception, open public space, and the public toilet, which are both independent and interdependent and are systematically organized. The big roof is built on prefabricated plywood roof truss at different scales that repeat and evolve from the coherent design logic and form, similar to the traditional Chinese wooden buildings, which change within the continuous array of roof trusses. A standard roof truss is designed and repeated to be arrayed for scale change according to the space, and therefore, a spatial relation of three basic wooden roof trusses is created.

From the very beginning, I hope to design a clear structural logic for the architecture, including the platform, the walls, the wood structure, the stairs, and the roof. The design restores the platform foundation as the basic element of the site, clarifies the relation between the wall and the wood structure, and aligns the stairs with the wall, which also designs the walls of three different textures along the direction of the roof. The cast-in-place bamboo formwork concrete wall is horizontally arranged in accordance with the direction of the long side of the roof, while the short side is filled with translucent glass brick walls which retreat behind the concrete wall. All square holes and windows are on the cast-in-place bamboo formwork wall, the small square window glass retreats with open leaves, the large square window protrudes, and fixed glass is installed on the outside. The doors, made of translucent Changhong glass, open on the glass brick wall. An oblique masonry rubble wall between the three roofs is connected to the interior of the reception, forming an interesting interwoven relationship.

There are three different internal and external connections between the wood structure columns and the walls. The columns in the reception area are on the inside and 400 away from the wall axis, while the wall is separated from the structure. The wood structure columns in the public toilet are all exposed outside of the wall, while the wood structure in the open public space is occluded with the same axis of the wall. All these relations bring more fun to the space and explore the most basic elements of the building and the organizational logic between the structure and the wall. In fact, these kinds of organizational methods have been used in traditional residential construction with clear relations in each system. We made attempts to combine these relations in this architecture.

Wander and time: When I first stepped into the house, I felt an unexpected excitement. It’s a very interesting experience to wander about aimlessly through various paths and different spaces, not knowing where to go at the intersections. The inspiration might come from the implicit memory of the Suzhou garden I visited many years ago. Multiple paths in the building create a special walking experience. As the height difference set several spaces at different elevations, the space naturally forms slopes and stairs. For a better view of the distant mountains, we set a path to the roof interspersed between three roofs along the wall. The veranda goes up and down, passes an open roof entrance, and extends to the overhead platform, which is deliberately limited and guided in the space, but also left with many choices at one time to erase the sense of time during wandering. The aimless wander can take many alternative paths, with changes in heights, combined with usefulness and uselessness to represent a sense of time.

Fun – Fun: is a widely discussed topic. As people’s bodies and sight change with the turning and guidance of space, surprises will be generated uninterruptedly. The interwoven walls and roofs form an informal relation to create visual dislocation. From the hole between the two walls, different contents are presented. At a certain angle in the space, the windows will overlap diagonally, and they will be stacked layer by layer, which brings richer and more focused views. When these perspectives are noticed, the fun arises.

Party of gray: Blending fineness and wildness – Warm-colored wood and gray cement and stone are mainly chosen for materials. The warm color appears in the upper part of the building, and gray dominates in the lower part. The building mainly uses small-size Douglas fir plywood, and the Douglas fir watch board and red cedar shingles for a roof system are all warm colors. The walls and the ground are gray. The bamboo formwork cast-in-place concrete wall, washed stone steps, old slate outdoor paving, and terrazzo indoor ground form a similar gray tone. The glass brick wall is mixed with a little cold gray to balance the warmth of the color, as well as provide subtle changes of similar materials and different textures. The iron railings for the window bookcases are also gray, which together build the texture and temperature of the building. We also hoped to present a contrast between the fine and the wild, the harmony of the warm color and gray, and a combination of the light and the heavy to form the most basic material perception of the building.

Architecture influences people comprehensively through space, light and shadow, materials, and experience. The collision between materials is not only in color, light, and shadow but also in their texture and feel. I was a little disappointed when the bamboo formwork concrete was just removed, as it didn’t turn out to be what I expected, but I didn’t rush to repair it. As the wood structure and glass bricks were done, the roughness of the bamboo formwork concrete went just fine. After the rubble wall is built, the rough feeling of bamboo formwork concrete turned even better, with more layers of texture and water line projections of light and shadows making it more vivid. As fineness and roughness go hand in hand, a high density of delicacy is usually overwhelming, while roughness without details bores people. The proportion and the control of the relation as well as the architect’s personal feeling are important, while every decision made on the site will affect the overall quality of the building after completion.

Sense and logic: The design didn’t take much time, but during the construction, we spent much time on the materials and details, and sometimes the reality turned out different from what we expected. The language of design is based on logic with clear ideas and techniques, but also a sense of fuzzy changes. We hope that the designs and connotations are sensed, not straightforwardly illustrated to the users. The clarity of design logic and the ambiguity of personal feelings coexist in this project. The design logic is rational, and the feeling of the space relates more to the emotion. I put a lot of thought into the veranda railings, and simulated various forms during modeling, but ended up with light gray iron railings to weaken the sense of existence and integrate them into the overall gray background. I always go back and forth during the design and even the construction, but what is left would be the result of back and forth struggle between logic and feeling.

Used by the public: Being public is a constant concern and discussion in our works, and the same goes to this architecture. There are few areas outside, and most of the space is open for people to sit and chat or walk randomly around, with a public toilet that opens 24-7. In the evenings, many residents who live around would stay and chat. We want the completion of the building a commencement rather than a closure, and only frequent use can make it public.

Real construction: Real construction will surely impress people, which is a constant pursuit for our firm and has been realized in this architecture. Since the very beginning, I hoped that we could use the clearest thinking to design all the spaces, structural materials, and relations to clearly present and express without any decoration the whole process of construction when people enter the space. Stones slowly pile up from bottom to top, concrete bamboo is cast on-site, wood structures are constructed on-site, old stone slabs are paved one after another, and glass bricks are built one by one, which all help to restore the construction process. For me, the biggest achievement is exactly to provide such clear expression for the architecture.

Text provided by the architect.

At the same time, from the perspective of the space relationship, the book house is in a triangle area, with the main walkway on the south and a three-meter stone wall on the north. Above the wall, there is a playground for children. By lifting up the close space of the house to give room to the space between the ground floor and the walkway, passers-by are also made able to rest under the house at any time. The second floor is on the same level as the children’s play area, which makes it convenient for kids to read books or play while their parents can still pay attention to their children when reading. Whether it is from the perspective of the nature of the site or that of understanding rural life, we hope that architecture and villagers, as well as the rural environment, can remain friendly to each other.

Patio and time. The patio is placed in the book house as the core with a pleasant scale. There is a surface of the water below the bottom of the first-floor patio. On rainy days, water rain falls from the patio into the pool, and the sound can be heard inside the house; while when the sun shines directly, it creates a unique light and shadow effect. A patio is designed in such a small place because it makes the house more relevant to nature, time, and space. This is a sense of time in the house from my perspective.

The setting of the patio looks like it is waiting for a certain time – for the sun to cast in a beautiful shadow, for the rain to drip ripples, or for the breeze to blow in. At those moments, the patio is set as a special space waiting for its significance of being created. The essence of rural architecture as I understand is a state in which people and space, people and nature, and people and time coexist harmoniously. This patio, makes it happen by including sunlight, rain, and air into the interior space.

Corridor and communication. There are two rounds of back-shaped bookshelves on the second floor, creating a corridor around the patio and the reading space in the middle. With a comfortable width of one meter, it suspends from the structure of the first floor. The corridor provides the experience of walking around in the garden, while a lot of holes are opened according to the modular size of the back-shaped bookshelves, letting the light and airflow through the difference of size and height.

As the reader wanders around in the corridor, their horizon opens together with the entrance, and the boundaries disappear. When standing on the other side of the entrance, people can see through the window and watch others reading books on the balcony, and farther, the hills and forests far away. The perspective from different layers creates communication between people, space, and the environment.

Experimental attempt. We have always been insisting on the design and research method of research. During the design of the book house, we made two experiments: the experiment on the morphological type, and the experiment on the application of materials.

In terms of morphological type, the closed space of the book house is raised up, using the double-sloping roof form and slope of the local dwellings, as well as the traditional roofing and the grey tiles, but small adjustments were made on the roof ridge. It is deflected by 6.5°bringing a subtle morphological change to the roof, making one side of the roof higher than the other, and enabling the space to change through the inclination of the roof and the shelves.

In terms of materials, the bookcases use the modular structure of there-centimeter thick pinewood and is controlled by a unified modular scale language. The vertical frame of the bookshelf and the structural beam of the roof are in one-to-one correspondence, forming an overall language logic system. On the outer façade, the relatively rare sun panels in the village make the whole house translucent, and the light in the room becomes gentle through the solar panels, creating a comfortable environment for reading. The translucent material allows readers inside to have a glimpse of the outdoor landscape, achieving a semi-transparent spatial experience and atmosphere.

Many architects are unfamiliar with the countryside, but they also make attempts to design. We are the same. We are the same. With the hope of exploration and integration, we try to intervene in the countryside as architects. In many cases, the inspiration not only comes from the intuitive judgment of the architect but is also rooted in the countryside itself, so that the locality and creativity can connect well. In fact, there are no standards for the countryside, no fixed rules, no uniqueness, and good or bad can only be judged by the village itself. I hope this will be a good start.

Text provided by the architect.