This is a modern renovation project in the old town of Guangzhou city, targeting the young generation. We try to make good use of the existing condition as it is and re-design the building while asserting minimum alterations. This project is to renovate a 7-story building in the old city center of Guangzhou into a modern guesthouse. Guangzhou has subtropical climate with long summers and warm winters. Its abundant precipitation makes the city flourish with vegetation all year round. Walking down the streets in Guangzhou, there are fascinating greenery everywhere. People’s lives are not confined to just indoors; public activities extended onto the streets allow everyone to take advantage of the climate and pleasant scenery throughout the city. The urban landscape of Guangzhou is filled with people’s vitality and diverse life styles. The renovation is situated in a residential area with a strong sense of lively dynamic. Due to the high density of buildings and their close distance between each other, one can see the clothes drying on the neighbor’s balcony through the windows. Therefore, to reduce visual interruption for visitors while preserving the guesthouse’ enriched natural lighting becomes one of our major challenges. The project began with bare column and beam structures. The standard floor is divided into a four-room layout. The bedrooms and the wet area are separated into upper and lower floors, and the double story living room introduces a frosted channel glass façade, which acts as insulation while bringing in natural light and avoiding direct sightline to neighboring buildings. One wall of the first-floor lobby is made with 120mm long strips of sliced galvanized steel deck. Natural light passes through stacked steel deck in parallel and reflects softly diffused light to welcome the guests. Despite the lack of glamorous material due to the limited budget, the minimalistic yet expressive overall spatial profile is articulated through the application of delicate architectural details and layout planning. Thinking reflecting the most fundamental questions about space and material is growing scarce in this era where it’s flooded with stylish designs, hence the opportunity for our experimental practice on delivering a living space with modern aesthetics in a historical town with unadorned means.