Description

Project site: Xiaopu, Beijing
Tine of design: 2020-2021
To be completed: 2023
Project scale: 1890㎡
Project client: Songzhuang Investment Co. Ltd.
Design team: Di Shaohua, Yang Jialin, Cui Ying, Xu Xinxin

Known as the Painters’ Village, Songzhuang Xiaopu has undergone a series of changes in the process of urbanization in the past two decades. Now as a supporting living area of Beijing city’s Tongzhou sub-center, it is in the stage of upgrading and transformation into a cultural heritage village. The project is located between the two main streets of the original part of Xiaopu Village, and the total site area is about 2.5 Mu containing four homesteads. The previous brick houses built by the farmers on the homestead have been demolished due to problems such as disrepair and structural hazards. We need to design a new four-family house that abides by regional planning codes to meet the flexible needs of the farmer owners for rent or self-occupation.

When an art community is naturally formed, it will gradually bring cultural groups and business opportunities, so the art community begins to evolve into a labeled “Art District”. In the process, however, the art community will lose its pristine quiet and low-cost environment that is critical to nurture creativity. As the entire area becomes commercialized, artists will gradually move away. The space thus freed up will be used by operators of the arts or by practitioners of emerging industries, and these are the potential occupants after the homesteads regeneration.

The design intends architecture to integrate into the original village space and texture, carrying memories while calling new people and new functions to settle in. The traditional north-south courtyard layout and the gray brick walls were applied to the design. The characteristics of the original village – sloped roofs – have also been retained, but in photovoltaic panels instead of traditional tile. As a result, new energy technologies and traditional forms generate sensory fusion. The gables of each of the four-family building is applied with concrete slabs of different colors, outlining the individuality of each household and enhancing the depth as well as  openness of the main entrance along the street. Color is a remembrance of the natural painter’s village, and it is also the hope of recalling a gradually lost warmth in the Internet age.