Entrance view. Image © Chuan Bai
- Interiors Designers: Xue Jin Architecture Network
- Location: 1 Shuanggang Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, China
- Designer In Charge: Jin Xue
- Collaborators: Isabel Escudero
- Area: 71.0 m2
- Project Year: 2018
- Photographs: Chuan Bai
Living room. Image © Chuan Bai
Text description provided by the architects. The apartment, a unit in a 21-year-old residential building sitting at the central section of Chongqing City, China. The building constructed on the mountain, respecting the original landform, is a typical precious local residence. It used to be the home of a couple with their only child in the past two decades. It is now owned by a young couple. Dissatisfied with the original layout, lighting and ventilation, the young couple wishes to have the apartment reconstructed so that it is to become more pleasant, comfortable and functional to meet their needs.
Living room. Image © Chuan Bai
Section
For reconstruction of the apartment, it is required to focus on the kitchen and toilet. The owner wishes to have a brighter and more spacious kitchen, for daily cooking and enjoyment of preparing foods with friends there. As to toilet, the owner wishes to have a relatively independent bathroom with a bathtub provided.
Cooking area. Image © Chuan Bai
The original kitchen and toilet are small with unpleasant insufficiency of lighting. Therefore, it is of necessity to expand the kitchen and the toilet. However, since almost all the walls inside the residential building are load-bearing and cannot be dismantled, design of the new internal organization must be based on the existing wall structure. This undoubtedly adds to the difficulty in reconstruction. The core of design is to relocate the kitchen without dismantling main wall bodies, meanwhile the kitchen need to be combined with other functional areas to make the apartment of greater capaciousness, brightness and comfort. While the original kitchen area is to be transformed the bathroom. The toilet and bathroom are to be designed as two relatively independent parts.
Bathroom. Image © Chuan Bai
The new apartment will have two relatively private bedrooms, and one shared open space that flexibly serves for multiple purposes. The open space so designed is to remove spatial limitation and make the occupants closer to each other while doing the normal daily activity there. Meanwhile, fixtures such as sofa, desk and cabinet are combined to form an entirety and set against the same wall, making the apartment appear luxurious with more room for activities.
Guest room. Image © Chuan Bai
Contrastive
Living room. Image © Chuan Bai
Presently in China, high-rise buildings are coming into being like mushrooms after rain, while old buildings are gradually falling into oblivion. This case is intended to provide a reference for reconstruction of old apartments, in the hope that more designers will be dedicated to exploring and improve the reconstruction value of old apartments.
Shoe shelf. Image © Chuan Bai