This brick vacation house situated in Hebei, China, has been recently designed by Archstudio.

Description
The project is situated on a flat site in the suburbs, which is surrounded by orchards, farmland and rivers, boasting beautiful landscape. On the west side is a grain processing factory, which is an enclosed architecture with pitched roofs designed by ARCHSTUDIO in previous years. There was originally a wooden house on the site, with a typical structure commonly seen a decade ago. To improve the quality of space, the house owner decided to demolish it and build a new architecture on the site. The newly built house mainly functions as a leisure and vacation space, serving for not only living but also receiving guests.
1. Architectural form derived from traditional Chinese courtyard dwellings The design concept is derived from courtyard dwellings (Siheyuan), a kind of traditional Chinese residence. Siheyuan has an inward-facing architectural structure, with buildings arranged around a central courtyard. The exterior of Siheyuan is closed, while the interior courtyard is completely open, which offers little privacy for the occupants. Based on site conditions and the main functions of the project, ARCHSTUDIO decided to construct the house by borrowing and transforming the architectural pattern of traditional Siheyuan. The design team arranged four rooms on different sides in a scattered way, added a roof to the “courtyard” and turned it into a ...