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The Home for Martial Arts

PONE Architecture

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Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
House
5.50
6.92
6.58
5.08
6.02
Richard Parr
Richard Parr Founder at Richard Parr Associates
4
6
5
3
4.5
William Barrington-Binns
William Barrington-Binns Director of Photography at WBB & Co.
7
7
8
7
7.25
Anastasia Karandinou
Anastasia Karandinou Architect, Senior Lecturer at University of East London
6
7
6
5
6
Jasper Blüm
Jasper Blüm Senior Designer at Colliers
6
7
8
6
6.75
Bret Recor
Bret Recor Founder & Creative Director at Box Clever
6
7
7
6
6.5
Corien Pompe
Corien Pompe Chairman and Founder at Donna e Mobile
4
7
6
4
5.25
Chen Xiaohu
Chen Xiaohu Cofounder and Brand Director at BloomDesign
5
6
5
6
5.5
Li Baolong
Li Baolong Cofounder and Creative Director at BloomDesign
6
7
6
6
6.25
Jason Traves
Jason Traves Chief Creative Officer at Lucky Fox
5
7
7
5
6
Johnny Chiu
Johnny Chiu Founder at J.C. Architecture
6
7
7
6
6.5
Joanna van der Linden
Joanna van der Linden Global Retail Identity & Design Manager at Nestlé Nespresso
6
8
7
2
5.75
Stefano Giussani
Stefano Giussani CEO at Lissoni New York
5
7
7
5
6
Client
Private
Floor area
388 ㎡
Completion
2020

We created Ke Yuan (Ke Garden), home for the descendants of the He Family, with “Ke” indicating something worth having. Remote village houses are faintly visible in a distance, while curvy smoke rise quietly and gently into the sky. Old streets and winding alleys, towering banyan trees, black tiles and white walls, and grey tile pavement. The past and the present are woven into the crisscross of time. For thousands of years, the world has been changing, yet people here still live a relaxed and unhurried life, soothing the restless hearts in the bustling life. The Chinese character 「园」 was written as 「園」in ancient times, with a small 「口」 inside, meaning a pool. No garden can be truly called a garden without water, which injects life into the garden and makes it a true 「家園(home)」. The sunken parlor on the first floor encloses a comfortable and cozy space. Outside the parlor are western and Chinese kitchens and the restroom.On the second floor is a suite for the elderly and an open-style study. Rooms for the brother and the sister are symmetrically provided on the third floor, with restrooms of mortise-and-tenon geometry placed in between. The entire fourth floor is for the master bedroom suite, including study and pantry. The rooftop provides a void space for leisure and gathering. In the third and fourth floors, the terrace-backwards lighting design was adopted. Through the inner-back skylights on second and third floors, the light can reach the bottom of the house, thus making "Sishui Guitang" (The unique layout of traditional Chinese houses which demonstrates the great intelligence of “Nature and Man in One”. ) a reality, which was valued by ancient Chinese people. The properties of objects are highlighted to bring out the pure beauty and acquire symbols of distinctive Lingnan memory. This means returning to the intuitive and keen sensibility of objects, just like the poetic touch of light, the melodies of the babbling raindrops, the imagination about life at the smell of tea, and the warm feeling at the sight of dim morning light. The staircases, as key elements of the building, wind vertically and horizontally through void and solidness. With elaborated designed spatial density and varied heights of spaces, the major spaces are highlighted and differentiated from the minor ones, creating lively interior spaces of varied levels. The mortise-tenon connection which enjoys a history of over 7000 years plays a key part in ancient buildings. Yet with the advances in technology, it has now faded in architecture, and serves more as a cultural symbol. We refined the traditional mortise-tenon connection to form the skeleton of the whole building, Along the building skeleton comprising the mortise and tenon, lighting system is concealed and installed, enabling new functions of mortise and tenon and conveying the inherent oriental complex in spaces.