When Japanese architect Shuhei Aoyama first stepped into the Zhang family home in Beijing’s Dengshikou neighborhood, it was dark, dingy and overcrowded. Clutter spilled across most surfaces, as the family (two grandparents, two parents and a 3-year-old child) crammed into a 43sqm space.
Sandwiched between a hutong wall and a two-story building, the house had originally been a public pathway, and was therefore built into a thin L-shape. Short on space, the young couple were forced to sleep in a single bed beside their child. The home lacked storage, privacy and – due to high walls on either side – natural light.
With a second child on the way, the family contacted the popular home renovation TV show, Mengxiang Gaizao Jia (roughly meaning ‘Dream of Home Transformation’). The program’s producers matched the Zhangs with Aoyama, a founding partner of B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio in Beijing. He was tasked with redesigning the space – without input from the family (a dramatic ‘reveal’ being a prerequisite of reality TV).
For Aoyama, the challenge was not only about space efficiency, but about maintaining the public character of the Zhangs’ home.
“There were two entrances to the house, because it used to be a path,” he explains, pointing to a wooden replica in his Guomao studio. “The neighbors would come in from either door. They’re all friends, so they didn’t need to knock. These things always happen in Beijing. It doesn’t look like a private house – it’s more like a public hutong area, so that became our design inspiration.”
The strategy was twofold. First, Aoyama wanted to create a new, semi-public path through the house. Second, he wanted to create a “hutong feel” inside the Zhangs’ residence.
After five months of design and construction, the space was (true to the show’s name) entirely transformed. By raising the ceiling height to 3.3 meters, Aoyama and his team could install loft space throughout. Skylights allow sunlight to pour in, and the “hutong feel” is produced with plants and outdoor-style chairs. To maintain the open, public quality, a cement path now leads through the house, with living areas decked out in homelier wood flooring.
Most impressive is the innovative use of space. Anything unnecessarily occupying room can slide or fold away: The dining table extends and shrinks back again after use, stairs raise to reveal storage space, and walls slide across to cordon off bedrooms at night. The back of the house opens up onto a patio, adding precious square meters during summer.
“This renovation is about the future development of cities. In China, young people can only afford very, very small houses. I want to show that although we can only buy small spaces, we can live very comfortably”
“The family really liked it,” Aoyama says. But for the soft-spoken architect, this project was not just about the Zhangs. And it wasn’t about the money – the TV station didn’t pay a design fee.
“We don’t normally do private housing design – I’m more interested in design related to the city or society,” he explains. “This renovation is about the future development of Beijing. In China, young people can only afford very, very small houses. I want to show that although we can only buy small spaces, we can live very comfortably.”
Herein lies another problem for the capital. While architects’ redesigns offer a solution for reality TV, they are unaffordable for ordinary families. Developers are also increasingly unwilling to demolish hutong homes and rebuild them in an ‘authentic’ style (around Nanluoguxiang, people are already asking for compensation of RMB200,000 or RMB300,000 per square meter which, according to Aoyama, leaves developers with little space for profit if they wish to rebuild from scratch).
Aoyama’s proposed solution – and one he hopes the Dengshikou project will inspire – means no longer relying on developers.
“I’m thinking about new ways to renovate. This is the way of the future: original residents renovating by themselves with the support of the government, developers and architects.”
This approach may help protect historic areas while empowering residents to increase the value of their properties. And although most hutong residents will struggle to match the intricacies of the Zhangs’ new home, Aoyama hopes that they can rethink the spaces they live in.
Or in his words: “I wanted to use this design to say that there’s another possibility of living.”
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