/ A B ODE /
CONTEMPORISING THE TRADITIONAL
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ONCE AN ABANDONED SIHEYUAN IN BEIJING, QISHE COURTYARD IS NOW RESTORED INTO A CONTEMPORARY LIVING SPACE WITH CURVED WALLS AND SLEEK ROOMS WHILE RETAINING ITS UNIQUE, TIME-HONOURED FEATURES. WORDS PRAIS E POH
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/ P H OTOGRAPHY WANG NING, WU QINGS HAN
1. The entrance was shifted to the east and the walls of the daozuo fang were removed to make space for a garage. / 2. The front courtyard retained many of its historical elements, such as the traditional grey bricks and arched door opening.
R
estoring an old building is not an
Iconic elements such as the carvings
easy task, much less an iconic
on arched door openings and traditional
siheyuan.
gateway at the entrance were kept.
Located in the old city of Beijing, this
Leftover old bricks, found inside the
project is named Qishe (literally meaning
courtyard, were used to repair the damaged
“seven houses” in Chinese), because it
exterior wall.
originally consisted of seven pitched-roof
“After all the reinforcement work was
houses and is also the seventh unit in the
done, we assessed and tested the bearing
hutong (the narrow lane between siheyuan).
capacity of the structure,” Han says.
Han
Wenqiang,
founder
chief
architect of Beijing-based design studio ARCHSTUDIO,
was
tasked
with
the
responsibility and he started by deciding what to retain and remove. Parts of the roof and walls that were
COMPLETE CONNECTIVITY The original siheyuan consisted of three courtyards. The front courtyard is small, featuring a row of daozuo fang (rooms that are located in
severely damaged had to be demolished.
the south of the siheyuan and face the north
Wooden structural beams that were well-
direction) and the gateway.
preserved were left in situ.
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and
Traditionally, daozuo fang served as a
