Sci-Fi Housing for Beijing / Yaohua Wang Architecture

During the modernization of Beijing, except for some historical houses, independent housing typology was almost eliminated. Afterwards, the new model became huge, stacking commercial residential buildings.

Thus, with the support of the client, project Beijing House II is trying to seek new methods of bringing the independent housing typology back to Beijing’s contemporary city life. This design scheme adds a new house onto the exterior of an obsolete factory building. Inside the house there are bedrooms, a studio and a green room. By doing this, the design uses the empty city space in the air and rediscovers the typology of independent housing in Beijing city.

Meanwhile, this scheme also brings about new challenges because Beijing has frequent earthquakes and this design scheme suggests a big cantilever house, which is attached onto the exiting building. Therefore, to keep this in mind, a mechanical system is introduced to counteract a potential earthquake.

The design attitude of this scheme is very honest when dealing with the fluid geometry and the mechanical system. This scheme tries to mix and merge these two different styles together instead of hiding any one of the two different systems. This becomes one of the main features of the design.

Architect: Yaohua Wang Architecture
Location: Beijing, China
Structural Engineer: Organization Group
Client: Confidential
Site: An historical factory area in Beijing, which no longer working as a factory anymore
Program: Single-family residence and creative studio
Size: 500 m²
Cost: $2 million
Completion: 2015