GEOMETRIC VERNACULAR
Quanzhou, Fujian, China
Club Zhu
Commissioned
Concept, 2017
Collaborator: Yangyang Liu, Wenya Liu, Zhaoqi Chen
Located in an historical village site of Fujian, Club ZHU is a renovation project that transforms original four-story “modern Chinese village building” into a boutique guesthouse.
Within the original building framework, we proposed an interior courtyards strategy that resonates with the traditional housing typological layout of north Fujian area. The interior courtyards serve multiple spatial functions such as program division, introducing natural light to interior and blurring the boundary of inside and outside. The form and tectonic aspect of the design also maintained a referential relationship to the archetype of traditional dwelling houses.
The client has a preference on contemporary building language with a traditional vernacular touch. Based on the understanding and studies of traditional Fujian architecture and landscapes, the form of the building roof is the result of the combination of serval carefully controlled cylinder segments, informed by the interior program requirements.
Although the overall geometry of the building is generated by a contemprary technique, driven by mathmetical relationships. We aim to give the frontal expression of the building a more traditional touch. This means the interface of the building, where the users and the architecture interact, adopts a more tradional materiality and techtonic. Pieces of the roofs cantilivering out to create comfortable shading zones, which also resonate with the traditional local buildings.
The original building is badly designed. Its footprint is too large without openings for sunlight. Some parts of the plan are to deep to get any natural light. The space is cramped.To reactivate the space without significant alternation on existing structures, micro courtyards are inserted into the original building volume for introducing nature and natural light to the interior. The boundary of inside and outside becomes ambiguous.
The design of the roof geometry of Club Zhu is the most significant part of the architecture, as the client wants a iconic look for the building with a sense of tradition. To achieve this, we decide to find a way to distill the imagery sensibility of the traditional architecture of Quanzhou. The traditional local architecture has a signature roof formulation. The ridge of the roof has a gentle curvature that is projecting upwards on both sides. The tilings of the roof are then reciprocal to the shape of the ridge. To abstract this tradtional image, we shape the roof by segments of circles as a translation of the ridge, and then make the tilings to be the height contourline of the geometry.
Club Zhu
Commissioned
Concept, 2017
Collaborator: Yangyang Liu, Wenya Liu, Zhaoqi Chen
Located in an historical village site of Fujian, Club ZHU is a renovation project that transforms original four-story “modern Chinese village building” into a boutique guesthouse.
Within the original building framework, we proposed an interior courtyards strategy that resonates with the traditional housing typological layout of north Fujian area. The interior courtyards serve multiple spatial functions such as program division, introducing natural light to interior and blurring the boundary of inside and outside. The form and tectonic aspect of the design also maintained a referential relationship to the archetype of traditional dwelling houses.
The client has a preference on contemporary building language with a traditional vernacular touch. Based on the understanding and studies of traditional Fujian architecture and landscapes, the form of the building roof is the result of the combination of serval carefully controlled cylinder segments, informed by the interior program requirements.
Although the overall geometry of the building is generated by a contemprary technique, driven by mathmetical relationships. We aim to give the frontal expression of the building a more traditional touch. This means the interface of the building, where the users and the architecture interact, adopts a more tradional materiality and techtonic. Pieces of the roofs cantilivering out to create comfortable shading zones, which also resonate with the traditional local buildings.
The original building is badly designed. Its footprint is too large without openings for sunlight. Some parts of the plan are to deep to get any natural light. The space is cramped.To reactivate the space without significant alternation on existing structures, micro courtyards are inserted into the original building volume for introducing nature and natural light to the interior. The boundary of inside and outside becomes ambiguous.
The design of the roof geometry of Club Zhu is the most significant part of the architecture, as the client wants a iconic look for the building with a sense of tradition. To achieve this, we decide to find a way to distill the imagery sensibility of the traditional architecture of Quanzhou. The traditional local architecture has a signature roof formulation. The ridge of the roof has a gentle curvature that is projecting upwards on both sides. The tilings of the roof are then reciprocal to the shape of the ridge. To abstract this tradtional image, we shape the roof by segments of circles as a translation of the ridge, and then make the tilings to be the height contourline of the geometry.
