"Xuebei Home is hidden along a narrow lane in Qiaodong Old Town in Guangdong, where the buildings lean close enough for neighbors to exchange words through their windows. Designed by architect Huang Yimin of GongHe Construction Architectural Studio, the concrete project rebuilds an ancestral dwelling on a 44-square-meter (474-square-foot) plot. What emerged is a careful exercise in spatial negotiation, an act of renewal that acknowledges the intimacy of Guangdong's urban villages."
"While Xuebei Home is enveloped by its taller neighbors of Guangdong's Qiaodong Old Town, only a sliver of sky is revealed above. To open the space without disturbing the fragile balance between properties, Huang introduced a sequence of small voids, or punctures that allow light and air to pass through. The interior is organized vertically: a communal room and kitchen occupy the ground floor, two bedrooms sit above, and a reading loft rests beneath the curved roof."
"The walls are cast in exposed concrete, their wood-grain texture transferred from recycled formwork. Each surface records the labor of construction - the subtle imprints of timber and the irregular seams of poured concrete - transforming the structure itself into a chronicle of rebuilding. The decision to leave the material unfinished was both practical and aesthetic, reducing maintenance in Huizhou's humid climate and allowing the house to age naturally within its surroundings."
Xuebei Home rebuilds an ancestral dwelling on a 44-square-meter plot within the dense alleys of Qiaodong Old Town, Guangdong. The original house had collapsed into ruin; only memories remained. The design re-establishes family connection through spatial negotiation rather than replication. A vertical plan stacks communal kitchen and living on the ground floor, two bedrooms above, and a reading loft beneath a curved roof. Small voids puncture the compact volume to bring light and ventilation without disturbing neighboring properties. Exposed concrete walls cast from recycled timber formwork display wood-grain textures and seams, reducing maintenance and allowing natural aging in Huizhou's humid climate.
Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]