QiXin

The brief of this 75.000 sqm residential project in the north-western suburbs of Beijing is just to build “town houses”, in another word, row houses. But this London suburb residential typology has nothing to do with Beijing. In examining the old city of Beijing, we found that the courtyard house and the Hutong system are finally a good example for a town house, because when you walk down the Hutong, you are strongly aware of the town, but once you come into the courtyard, you are totally separated from the public life. With a much higher plot ratio compared with the old city, another interpretation of this word “town house” in our scheme is the bottom of the house as a “town”, and the penthouse as a “house”.

Project Name: Xiangshan town houses

Location: Beijing

Client: Xingrongji

Architect: Qi Xin, Julia Veksperen

Project Team: Qi Xin, Qin Yan, He Wei, Julia Veksperen, Wan Bin

Structure and Material: bricks

Building Area: 75.000 sqm

Design Period: 2004

Construction Period: suspended