d+a | Issue 116 • Jun/July 2020

/ ABODE / 74 western kitchen area, a closed Chinese kitchen and a storage room. The western kitchen is adjacent to the dining room and can double up as an open kitchen counter to fulfil a variety of entertainment possibilities. CELEBRATING THE OLD AND NEW Besides using traditional building materials such as wood and grey bricks, the team also introduced other interesting materials. Glass bricks were used to construct the toilet walls for privacy and natural light. Their similarity in shape and size to the existing grey bricks offers an interesting connection and contrast. High-performance, bamboo-based, fibre- composite material is heavily used. Besides lining the bedrooms’ flooring, Han also applied it on the supporting beams underneath the veranda’s roof, as the material has an interesting texture and brown hue that matches the existing wooden columns. He elaborates, “We use the material to support the veranda. The designing, processing and lofting processes proved to be very challenging as the supporting structures are not of regular shapes. “In addition, it is a new material and at present, there is no well-defined structural design codes in China. Hence, the design team and the construction team worked closely together to ensure that the overall structure is as thin and light as possible, and in harmony with the old building. FLOOR PLAN HAN WENQIANG, FOUNDER, ARCHSTUDIO 1. Hutong Street 2. Main entrance 3. Garage entrance 4. Garage 5. Front courtyard 6. Reception room 7. Equipment room 8. Toilet 9. Servoce room 10. Original gate 11. Lobby 12. Living room 13. Tea room 14. Corridor 15. Middle courtyard 16. Bamboo courtyard 17. Storehouse 18. Rest area 19. Dining room 20.Western kitchen 21. Chinese kitchen 22.Study room 23.Back courtyard 24.Master bedroom 25.Second bedroom