This project further explores a sustainable renewal strategy for the urban fabric in the Baitasi historical area in an extremely subtle way. It aims to transform a 150 sqm courtyard in a shared space for two households with the insertion of a prefabricated service core in the 80 sqm main apartment and an 8 sqm “Mini House” underneath the pitched roof.

The boundary of the courtyard is clearly defined by its dated brick walls. By reinforcing them with a 9 cm thick casting concrete mixed with Chinese ink, and extending the roof structure to create integral roof scenery, we intended to give the courtyard enclosure and unity, refurbishing it instead of rebuilding it.

The 3.5 sqm service core, facilitated with kitchen, bathroom, laundry and storage, and the prefabricated “Mini House”, a completely independent fully equipped living unit, provide amenities largely lacking in hutongs. Once propagating throughout the old city, the cores and the “Mini Houses” may solve urgent infrastructure problems and dramatically improve the quality of life among hutong residents, against both the "tabula rasa" approach and the possible gentrification phenomenon that is common in the old city renewal practices.

Enthusiastic admirers of the work by Maurits Cornelis Escher,
the project starts with the clients’ particular desire for the
architect to use the impossible buildings by the Dutch graphic
artist as a reference for their house. The house is made up of
different parts that are connected to one another and explores
the intersections of spaces, figures and geometrical solids
in the plan. Simple squared volumes are linked by a galleryskylight
made entirely of glass, while a network of narrow
canals and tanks of water are superimposed in the design
of the external paved pathways, leading from the patio to a
small waterfall and a little wood of cypress trees. Faced with
wooden boards or stone slabs, the openings stand out in the
façades: the OS2 75 and EBE 65 profiles in galvanised steel
‘burnished black’ mark the regular outlines of the windows
to create the perimeter of the extensive glass windows,
contributing with great versatility in the design of the windows
to create a relationship of reciprocal continuity between the
paths in the house and the geometric patterns in the garden.