The project is located in an old courtyard house in an alley on the west side of Beijing Railway Station, an old landmark in Beijing. The owner is in the prime of his life and his mother has Alzheimer's disease with a wheelchair for daily life and mobility.

The old renovated house has a destroyed structure causing a series of problems such as ventilation and warmth and functional disorder. CAA’s concern is under the premise of protecting the Chinese traditional courtyard structure how to make more design possibilities so as to provide a good residential demonstration case for China entering the Aging era, let a 60-sqm small house meet the living needs of two generations at the same time, and endow the old house with new vitality and new living forms.

The house owns the structure of traditional courtyard houses with four beams and eight columns. A steel structure is added in the interior design for load-bearing, and the original wooden structure is retained in form to restore the history to the greatest extent. Use the original height of the siheyuan to isolate a two-story space and add two bedrooms. The old and new structures are intertwined, making it more solid, intelligent and livable and bringing new life to the old structure.

Combined with modern architectural design elements, barrier free facilities designed for the critically ill elderly are unobtrusive and embedded in every detail. The roof round window expresses the unique oriental aesthetics and echoes the traditional form of siheyuan. The kitchen roof and facade are covered with green plants, turning the roof into a small garden. The stairs hidden in the green plants unexpectedly extend from the house to the roof garden through the window. The upward expansion space breaks the confinement of the original physical space, giving residents new hope and exploring new living possibilities.

Due to the need to help Alzheimer patient retain her memory, this design returns to the traditional regeneration, integrates nostalgic elements, breaks through the previous design style of futuristic science and technology, and is a new attempt of CAA in the reconstructing and improving the living environment of the old Beijing Alley.