Mutant Yard

A lifestyle revived; a tradition renewed.

Owing to an entrenched emphasis on the familial side of interpersonal relationships which leads the Family to play an integral role within the widely practiced system of (predominantly Confucian) morals, traditional Chinese society functions predominantly in units of rather large, non-nuclear families residing in a complex. A prominent example of such residences in Beijing is the Siheyuan, a relatively compact architecture that houses an extended family within its four walls, while carrying out an array of functions. Mutant Yard is a modern interpretation of the Siheyuan, repurposing the structural and cultural elements of the Siheyuan in a modern context.

As a structure that in part repurposes its predecessor which had previously occupied the land, and in part inherits the spirit of the Siheyuan, the structure serves primarily as an apartment for a moderately sized family—less than a traditionally-sized Chinese family—to cater a more contemporary notion of residence, whilst at the same time, leverages architectural characteristics of the Siheyuan in its construction to preserve, to some extent, a part of history. Next to the entrance of the complex is a courtyard, with moveable walls comprising its periphery, each constructed with a cascading pattern of bricks. The walls enable a great degree of reconfigurability of the interior of the house as both residence and event space.

Nevertheless, Mutant Yard explores the interactions between styles of antiquity and modernity; an example being the Chinese style brick gate juxtaposing the adjacent wall with its interweaving pattern, or the grey rooftiles of the gate with the curved wooden tile of the main structure within. With these features, the design hopes to inject within the piece of architecture an organic, or organism-like mode of usage, hence its name.

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