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House without walls
House without walls
Shandong, China
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Other Projects by chaoffice
House without walls
Shandong, China
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2021
SIZE
1000 sqft - 3000 sqft
BUDGET
$10K - 50K
House without walls – a grand table in a cave
Escape from the metropolis:
The clients are a young couple, both of whom are designers. They grew tired of the plethora of urban issues which plague Beijing, much like any other major metropolis around the world. They decided to move to Jinan, a secondary city in China, which offered more space and a lower cost of living. Our first meeting together occurred before the approaching era of the pandemic, and the husband told me that for them it was not important to be based in any particular city as their work required them to travel often both domestically and abroad. Their new house would become both their home and office.
Who knew that an epidemic would break out before the the beginning of construction. With this new reality in mind, our attempt to change the type of space in a small apartment played an unanticipated role in the renovation.
The grand table:
Because of the nature of the clients work as designers, we envisioned the construction of a creative environment that contained certain characteristics that minimized the physical constraints of said environment and allowed for a variety of events to occur. Most importantly, we planned for a grand table within the new space, which would provide a place for a variety of different home and work activities. The size of the table is dictated by the standard modularized size of the materials used. 3 plywood boards with dimensions of 1.2 x 2.4 meters would be combined to create a massive 1.8 x 4.8 table.
The reformation of the discipline:
The site was originally a standard apartment unit consisting of 3 bedrooms, a common living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms located in a residential building which was built in 2006. The entire space was divided into several small rooms. The spatial condition and logic behind this original condition stemmed from 17th century Dutch and 20th century Soviet thinking. It met the requirements of most modern urban residents, in particular for middle class families with multiple members and sometimes even multiple generations. However, this collection of small rooms would not fit with our clients’ needs, and could also not accommodate the massive table.
Fortunately, the building structure is comprised of a system of supporting short-limb reinforced concrete shear walls, and all non-structural interior walls could be removed. When visiting the site just after completing the demolition of the existing apartment, we found that it had transformed into a cave, and the building itself became a mountain.
This brings me to a scene from the television series “Game of Thrones”, where on a cliff on “Dragon Stone Island” the ancestral court of the “House of Targaryen” appeared a cave like meeting room within which was a huge table; the so called “Chamber of the painted table”. The large scale of both room and table, and the sky lights emanating from a single direction, together provide a space with a special series of characteristics - Quiet, focused, and at moments relaxed.
Back to our site, demolishing walls was the first step, and then, our strategy was to create a space which totally lacked them. The spatial transformation led to several consequences, firstly, the separate collection of small rooms was combined into a single entity, and the scale of the space increased dramatically. Secondly, the restriction of light and shadows caused by walls was transformed into something more continuous and gradual. At last, the inhabitants who have been empowered separately by walls now live together again.
Occupying the cave:
After the demolition was complete, there remained many traces and vestiges of the past. Besides short structural walls, the existing plumbing, heating, and electrical facilities and their related core infrastructure could not be moved. This dictated that the general location of both bathrooms would not change. We enlarged the original master bathroom and wrapped it in a series of shelves and cabinets. Instead of walls, the huge device generated ultimately functions as a separator. Beginning near the main entrance, it naturally divides the space into two parts, public and private. A narrow corridor enclosed by bookshelves links them together. The corridor appears like a narrow dark passage in an ever expanding cave. Those structural walls standing in the middle of the space became hidden boundaries. The expanded kitchen, versatile guest room, and chamber with grand table blurred together, and a series of semi-transparent curtains functioned as tangible, adjustable boundaries between these disparate areas.
The construction budget was set at only 200,000 RMB for the entire renovation of this 130 m² apartment, and so we needed to minimize construction projects and place focus on the most important issues. A majority of the construction would utilize on-site carpentry using plywood as a key material, for things like the table, bookshelves, a bed, kitchen cabinets, various furniture in the bathrooms, as well as a multi-functional double layer bed in the “guest room”. The grand table is so large that it is not suitable for dining, and so an additional, shorter sliding table incorporating wheels was added with the ability to be slid underneath its larger counterpart. We decided to use inexpensive birch plywood as both the structural material and final finish for all of these components. The existing concrete ceiling and structural walls were stripped of their previously applied finishings, which revealed a very unique, authentic and coarse texture as it was impossible to clean them completely. Other walls between our site and the neighboring apartments were constructed out of concrete aerated blocks, which as a material is fragile. An additional layer of gypsum plaster was used to conceal and protect these block walls. The electrical circuitry was redistributed and no longer concealed, but rather directly exposed as part of the visual environment.
Hanging metal rods supported a set of linear wooden rails running throughout the space in rectangular circuits following the pre-existing structural beams of the apartment. These wooden rails were used as conduits for electrical wiring, mounting structures for curtains, as well as lighting and electrical outlets.
The exposed layer of the floor is made up of self-leveling concrete, which was able to maintain the floor as a single plain. The original decorational door was replaced with a simple steel fire door. The shelving in the kitchen is fixed in place using ceramic plugs and steel wire.
The material strategy applied reduced the cost of construction to a near minimum. With the remaining budget, we used more expensive mosaic tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms. For the exposed pipe work, switch plates, and light switches, we found more delicate metal components rather than the usual plastic alternatives.
Although this is an interior renovation project, we still operated it as a part of an ongoing series of house projects that we have been involved with in recent years, and the design is a sort of environmental experiment, getting rid of all unnecessary barriers and returning the space to its most basic form. It is about morphology and the continuity of spaces, objects, and actions, as the everyday life of its occupants traverse through a continuum of space and shifting lights; a test of a type of living space liberating peoples bodies and dynamics. I think this "partial" liberation has been useful during this era of the epidemic, in particular for those who are isolated at home.
Escape from the metropolis:
The clients are a young couple, both of whom are designers. They grew tired of the plethora of urban issues which plague Beijing, much like any other major metropolis around the world. They decided to move to Jinan, a secondary city in China, which offered more space and a lower cost of living. Our first meeting together occurred before the approaching era of the pandemic, and the husband told me that for them it was not important to be based in any particular city as their work required them to travel often both domestically and abroad. Their new house would become both their home and office.
Who knew that an epidemic would break out before the the beginning of construction. With this new reality in mind, our attempt to change the type of space in a small apartment played an unanticipated role in the renovation.
The grand table:
Because of the nature of the clients work as designers, we envisioned the construction of a creative environment that contained certain characteristics that minimized the physical constraints of said environment and allowed for a variety of events to occur. Most importantly, we planned for a grand table within the new space, which would provide a place for a variety of different home and work activities. The size of the table is dictated by the standard modularized size of the materials used. 3 plywood boards with dimensions of 1.2 x 2.4 meters would be combined to create a massive 1.8 x 4.8 table.
The reformation of the discipline:
The site was originally a standard apartment unit consisting of 3 bedrooms, a common living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms located in a residential building which was built in 2006. The entire space was divided into several small rooms. The spatial condition and logic behind this original condition stemmed from 17th century Dutch and 20th century Soviet thinking. It met the requirements of most modern urban residents, in particular for middle class families with multiple members and sometimes even multiple generations. However, this collection of small rooms would not fit with our clients’ needs, and could also not accommodate the massive table.
Fortunately, the building structure is comprised of a system of supporting short-limb reinforced concrete shear walls, and all non-structural interior walls could be removed. When visiting the site just after completing the demolition of the existing apartment, we found that it had transformed into a cave, and the building itself became a mountain.
This brings me to a scene from the television series “Game of Thrones”, where on a cliff on “Dragon Stone Island” the ancestral court of the “House of Targaryen” appeared a cave like meeting room within which was a huge table; the so called “Chamber of the painted table”. The large scale of both room and table, and the sky lights emanating from a single direction, together provide a space with a special series of characteristics - Quiet, focused, and at moments relaxed.
Back to our site, demolishing walls was the first step, and then, our strategy was to create a space which totally lacked them. The spatial transformation led to several consequences, firstly, the separate collection of small rooms was combined into a single entity, and the scale of the space increased dramatically. Secondly, the restriction of light and shadows caused by walls was transformed into something more continuous and gradual. At last, the inhabitants who have been empowered separately by walls now live together again.
Occupying the cave:
After the demolition was complete, there remained many traces and vestiges of the past. Besides short structural walls, the existing plumbing, heating, and electrical facilities and their related core infrastructure could not be moved. This dictated that the general location of both bathrooms would not change. We enlarged the original master bathroom and wrapped it in a series of shelves and cabinets. Instead of walls, the huge device generated ultimately functions as a separator. Beginning near the main entrance, it naturally divides the space into two parts, public and private. A narrow corridor enclosed by bookshelves links them together. The corridor appears like a narrow dark passage in an ever expanding cave. Those structural walls standing in the middle of the space became hidden boundaries. The expanded kitchen, versatile guest room, and chamber with grand table blurred together, and a series of semi-transparent curtains functioned as tangible, adjustable boundaries between these disparate areas.
The construction budget was set at only 200,000 RMB for the entire renovation of this 130 m² apartment, and so we needed to minimize construction projects and place focus on the most important issues. A majority of the construction would utilize on-site carpentry using plywood as a key material, for things like the table, bookshelves, a bed, kitchen cabinets, various furniture in the bathrooms, as well as a multi-functional double layer bed in the “guest room”. The grand table is so large that it is not suitable for dining, and so an additional, shorter sliding table incorporating wheels was added with the ability to be slid underneath its larger counterpart. We decided to use inexpensive birch plywood as both the structural material and final finish for all of these components. The existing concrete ceiling and structural walls were stripped of their previously applied finishings, which revealed a very unique, authentic and coarse texture as it was impossible to clean them completely. Other walls between our site and the neighboring apartments were constructed out of concrete aerated blocks, which as a material is fragile. An additional layer of gypsum plaster was used to conceal and protect these block walls. The electrical circuitry was redistributed and no longer concealed, but rather directly exposed as part of the visual environment.
Hanging metal rods supported a set of linear wooden rails running throughout the space in rectangular circuits following the pre-existing structural beams of the apartment. These wooden rails were used as conduits for electrical wiring, mounting structures for curtains, as well as lighting and electrical outlets.
The exposed layer of the floor is made up of self-leveling concrete, which was able to maintain the floor as a single plain. The original decorational door was replaced with a simple steel fire door. The shelving in the kitchen is fixed in place using ceramic plugs and steel wire.
The material strategy applied reduced the cost of construction to a near minimum. With the remaining budget, we used more expensive mosaic tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms. For the exposed pipe work, switch plates, and light switches, we found more delicate metal components rather than the usual plastic alternatives.
Although this is an interior renovation project, we still operated it as a part of an ongoing series of house projects that we have been involved with in recent years, and the design is a sort of environmental experiment, getting rid of all unnecessary barriers and returning the space to its most basic form. It is about morphology and the continuity of spaces, objects, and actions, as the everyday life of its occupants traverse through a continuum of space and shifting lights; a test of a type of living space liberating peoples bodies and dynamics. I think this "partial" liberation has been useful during this era of the epidemic, in particular for those who are isolated at home.
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