Beijing HG Villa

HG Villa in the Shunyi district of Beijing is a 500 sqm housing project about to be completed by our studio. A young and entrepreneur couple with 3 kids came to us with the commission of creating a very modern, comfortable and functional house were simplicity and pureness was a must.



The original purchased structure with a rather classical style was unable to demolish it, so we consider those constrains as a chance to improve the final design result. We only kept the columns, beams and roof and turned it into a contemporary envelope with no ornaments or unnecessary elements. Rather we follow the logic of the more natural light the better, to generate big openings on walls and roof.

On the inside a sequence of integrated spaces, from the ground floor double height to the 3F open ceiling spaces and an extra mezzanine added as 4F under the roof, offer rooms to every family member, including the cat. A central vertical core combines industrialized metal technics with high technology solutions. The stairs only structured by iron rods hanging from the 3F ceiling beams goes down all the way with floating steps until gradually melt on 1F through the final steps with the TV wall and its cabinet, which seems to be one of the steps of the stairs moving in the direction of the outdoor terrace. Just besides the stairs, an elevator designed to use the less space as possible for machinery and offering a totally transparent cabin, appears as a bright glass lamp moving smoothly through the floors.

One of the advantages of the location of the villa is to be facing a park on the south area, which allows an unusual green view from most of the rooms. On the living room we emphasis this condition with double height glass windows. While on 2F and 3F full height windows let the green landscape into the interior spaces.

Facing the street by the entrance a foyer guide us to the living room area divided by a delicate louver metal screen which gradually rotate following the sunlight direction. On the East side, a western and Chinese kitchen serve the dinning area which face south. Just outside in the courtyard we emphasis the green background of the park by covering the original concrete wall with a light wood screen around all the plot line. This screen will become a green wall that brings nature into the inner spaces of 1F.

On 2F the kids area is divided in two rooms for the boys with a share bathroom and one room for the girl with private bathroom. In order to let the cat avoid the kids floor, we set a steps on the wall of 1F through the double height then over the piano to finally step up to 3F directly. 3F holds a guest room, a public area with a study desk, TV area and a bar counter, the master bedroom, master bathroom and walk in closet are all in suite.

A very functional steel stair designed to save space and climb 3.2m height up to the added mezzanine take to a leisure area in this new 4F which also includes a mesh for reading and relaxing. We opened the roof with 4 windows which allows natural light come through the mesh to wash the whole 3F no windows area.

The result is a bright, modern and minimal villa, where white is the main color to enhance the limits of the spaces. Key metal elements and the windows frame are black color to create a clear contrast in the composition. A mild tones of wood has been added on floor and cabinets to bring right balance of warm and soft which combined with the outdoor green and the abundant sunlight complete the natural, clean and comfortable overall feeling.



 

 

  • Project Year
    2020
  • Location
    Beijing, China
  • Area
    500 ㎡
  • Architects
    AE Architects
  • Photographs
    Chiara Ye
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