Month: September 2022

Located on a mountainside with sunrise vistas, the owner picked the perfect idyllic location to build a courtyard homestay for his family and friends. The project is situated in a village in Tengchong, Yunnan province, and overlooks the famous ancient town of Heshun across a paddy field. The site has the advantage of a wide outlook and quiet environment and enjoys a pleasant climate year-round. At the outset, we visited nearby villages with the owner, studied the layout of traditional-style dwellings and local construction materials, looking for construction teams, and discussed feasible construction techniques. Even with a lot of preparatory work, we still faced many difficulties at the later stage. After the conceptual design was completed, the site was completely overturned due to force majeure, and the structural system had to be replaced after the construction drawings had been issued and regulations on the ancient town’s style and features became more stringent. We and the owner made frequent trips between Beijing and Tengchong, treating any difficulties like leveling up to fight monsters in a computer game. But we persevered and made it in the end. The owner named the project Yard 3721, which translates to mean that the house would be built no matter what.

A corner building in HCMC has been transformed from a kindergarten to a cafe with curves and coffee-colored fittings to soften and smooth. Module K found the DNA for the Katinat Cafe project: a rough shell embracing a warm soul. The site, at the corner of an intersection, was once a kindergarten with a swimming pool inside. The clients wanted to keep the existing structure but remove glossy coats of paint and give the space a robust atmosphere. Katinat, a chain of more than 50 cafes in Vietnam, is named after a prominent old street (named Rue Catinat before 1975), the site of famous colonial buildings.

Sandringham House is a refuge for a young family in the Bayside suburb of Melbourne. The restrained black pavilion is nestled into the landscape under the canopy of a substantial oak tree. A series of courtyards are carved out of the simple form to provide a calming sanctuary within.

Landscape designer Simon Orchard is used to transforming clients’ yards. When it came to his own outdoor plot, he says, “it wasn’t hugely different, really — it’s just that the client in this instance was my wife.” The backyard makeover, completed thi…