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Architects: DAGA Architects
- Area: 329 m²
- Year: 2021
Text description provided by the architects. The project is located in the village of Qianjishan, Liujiadian Town, at the foot of Yaji Mountain, which is a famous Taoist cultural sanctuary in the Beijing Pinggu District. The site is ideally located, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and from the entrance, you can clearly see the northeastern Taoist temple, the Bixia Yuanjun Temple on Yaji Mountain, a famous Taoist temple in eastern Beijing. Every April, when the peach blossoms are in full bloom in Pinggu, the Yaji Mountain attracts many nature lovers who come to immerse themselves in this peach forest scene.
This two-story project of approximately 300 sqm has been designed with the use of rectangular interlacing and superimposition to achieve a spatial block composition within the house. The main body of the building is used as the main block, from which smaller blocks are inserted for variation, and similar blocks are interspersed.
The inclusion of a large number of right angles gives the building a completely different temperament from its surroundings, on both the facade and inside. The regular relationship between windows and doors is broken up and floor-to-ceiling windows are added to enhance the building's permeability with the outside world. A portion of the first-floor entrance has been removed to create a natural canopy.
The external extension of the windows also uses irregular rectangular structures interspersed with spatial compositions to make the overall interplay of the building's masses more apparent. The same size windows in the original building have been transformed into rectangular lenses of varying shapes and positions. The attempt is to separate the uniformity of the peach orchard scene into several landscape paintings.
Integrating the rougher textured paint and the more subtle wood finishes is a wonderful combination. The colour of the facade is a warm yellow texture paint and the choice of wood veneer also uses warm tones. Combined with the warm yellow light of the interior, it seems to speak warmly to visitors passing by. The use of warm wall lights on the exterior walls to illuminate the walls, unlike the coming and going of natural light, brings a pleasant sensation that can be savoured for a long time.
The external staircase is attached to the surface of the building at a 45° angle, providing an additional link between the internal rooms and the rooftop, as well as giving more flexibility to the space. Upon entering the interior space, the open design of the first floor enables communication with the outside world and reflects the openness and inclusiveness of the building itself. On the first floor, there is a bar area, which is made up of slabs of stone and marble to create a sense of relaxation and integration with nature.
In the original building, the second floor was a closed corridor, and the interior was dark because of the lack of light. Therefore, two light patios are provided at the top of the second-floor corridor and stairwell respectively during the renovation, which not only brings sunlight into the second-floor corridor, so that the occupants can feel the change of sunlight all the time but also opens up the boundary between the second floor and the rooftop. Standing on the rooftop and looking at the Yaji Mountains, the scenery outside the B&B contrasts with the noisy and lively fast-paced city as if it is a paradise where the pause button of city life has been pressed.
