Twin Gardens / YES.ARCH

Text description provided by the architects. Being situated at 80 kilometers away northwest of Tiananmen Square, Yudu Mountain overlooks the flat Yanhuai Basin. South-facing Yanjiabu Village sits on the mountain slope, with its crowded fabrics and typical northern Chinese countryside appearance. The village is with great tourism value due to its close distance to popular Longqing Gorge, as well as 2019 Garden Expo sites, and Shijinglong Ski Resort. Two courtyards which are located deep inside the village, are rented by client from twin brothers to be renovated into guesthouses. The program book asks architects to reasonably take advantage of courtyards’ existing buildings for more guestrooms, fully consider the economy of construction, and avoid the final results conflicting neighbors’ interests. As the landlords, the twin brothers also have two requirements: first, the renovation must not join the two courtyards into one so to respect existing property boundaries; and second, courtyards’ main entrances’ location should not be changed due to ‘Fengshui’ reasons.

We hope architecture could provide suitable conditions for mountain viewing, rather than submitting nature environment by erecting ‘phallist’ objects. This attitude, therefore, decides buildings’ simple color, and humble architectonic presentation. The only eye-catching elements are gardens’ thrive plants. The project is as if lost and being discovered again. The only job architect carry is to clean and restore.

We implant a north-facing ‘gloriette’ in each site as both living room and ‘anchor’ for collective activities. With its spectacular view of Yudu Mountain, the gloriette merges itself into the garden when its folding door fully opened, while allowing breeze and sunlight in. In sunny days, people can climb up to south gloriette’s roof for panorama of the basin at south. White stucco paint covers most building surfaces, which helps the new courtyard blending among neighboring houses that are all use this same material.

The two gardens are fundamentally different although with somewhat resemble style. All activity spaces in south garden- includes a pool, an open cinema, and a meeting place with a semi-outdoor bar- are spreading across the site circling the gloriette, being surrounded by various sizes’ circular plant pools with high grass. As a mirroring image, activities in north garden are surrounding a centralized plant pools in the middle of the garden. This reverse strategy is hoped to differentiate two sites and provoke imaginative ways of using these outdoor spaces. The thriving, wild and vicissitude of plants, as well as energetic outdoor events, are merged as a colorful foreground for the ‘everlasting’ mountain scenery of both living rooms.

The wood-brick structure main houses in both gardens, which are kept for economical reasons, need to modify their south façade reflecting building’s interior changes. A free-standing concrete sheer wall is erected to avoid damage on existing structure. This installation achieves three purposes: one, it gives the building a free façade; two, it supports a two meters’ deep eaves, extending existing roof to form a ‘grey space’ between garden and rooms; last, concrete’s coarse texture echoes mountain’s rough rocky landscape, contrasting other surfaces’ whiteness. The house’s tall south elevation is suppressed by this three dimensional façade, recessing into shadow as footnote for the spectacular mountain view.

Thanks to the deepness of the original house, we are able to place a ‘monastic cell’ inside each guestroom besides lavatory unit and sleeping unit. Unlike the sleeping unit which tries to maximize its height by exploiting the existing structure, the monastic cell is a small, intimate space. It challenges the relationship between human body and landscape outside through windows of various sizes. It is also a buffer zone for privacy-centric bedroom against the lively courtyard life.