No.3 Villa ‘See' and 'Seen', The Commune By the Great Wall

See and Seen house is part of the Commune by the Great Wall Kempinski, Beijing, a private collection of contemporary architecture designed by 12 Asian architects. It was exhibited at the 2002 la Biennale di Venezia. The 12 residences are used as a unique conference center, set in the mountains nearby the Great Wall. Of Course, people go to the mountains in order to enjoy the scenery. See and Seen provides wide vistas and has abundant levels in the north and northeast direction. The most critical problem in designing buildings in a mountain setting is to avoid shielding the scenery, not to mention the scenic views of surrounding buildings. By using a low-lying mesa, the living room and dining room are set in the brushwood. After covering the roof and planting grass on it, the earth ridge became a ‘grass ridge'. The living room was designed to be parallel with the mountain to keep the vision from the channel unimpeded, while the land can be kept continuous by suspending the building in the air.

The drawing room and the dining room are connected, providing a place for socialising. All living rooms can be freely divided into spaces with different sizes except for the host's room. Two washrooms were designed, which can be differentiated as gentlemen's and ladies' if is necessary. The host's room is in the upside of the mesa, where the dwellers can enjoy the wide vista and privacy. The privacy permits an open washroom, so the dwellers can enjoy the scenery while soaking in a luxurious bath.

The glass hall acts as a lantern that illuminates the outdoors at night. The two-floor space consists of the dooryard shared by the drawing room and the living room. In the dooryard, with the change of the time, the shadows of the sunshine, lights, fence bar, and trees all make pictures on the wall. While on the outside, with the change of seasons, the scenes of green grass, vines, yellow leaves, and ice flowers is reflected, demonstrating a harmonious relationship between humans and the environment.

The drawing room is more than 1m deep, and the earth excavated to level off the courtyard used to cover the roof. The protruding terrane can be slightly carved and used as outdoor furnishings.

Heat preservation and energy-saving are considered in the design in the surrounded structure covered with earth, heat-preservation floor panels, roof, three-layer and mid-hollow glass window, and especially the cold bridge located at the joint of inside and outside of the steel structural building.

Construction material:

• Steel-Structure and stairs
• Calcium Silicate Board-Outer decoration panel
• Glass-Windows, separation, glass lanterns
• Stone-Earth blocking wall, ground
• Timber-floor board, roof board, outside flat roof, furniture
• Implantation earth-earth covering the roof
• Grit-Courtyard ground

Repetition and discrepancy

• This conception is also fit for other regions, with the basic condition a terrain with altitude-changing earth ridges.
• The angle between living room and sitting room is changeable.
• The glass for the glass lantern is changeable (transparent, grit grinded, printed, color embed)
• Separating space of the living room is changeable.
• Area is changeable.
• Fixed furnishings are changeable.
• Materials used inside are changeable.

• << Prev
• Next >>