New Tone

Urbanism is a consistently developing organism. Architecture is its meat and bone, recording the evolving of city and narrating stories of people living. Architecture is the carrier of local culture. Like any other tangible substance, architecture decays. Aging architecture becomes dilapidated or loses the capability of serving new generations. The phenomenon of demolishing historical buildings and redeveloping the site for new high-rises seems to be the simplest yet the most crude side effect of modernization, because it’s driven by profit; or is disinterested in cultural inheritance.

This project delves into Beijing’s traditional neighborhood - Hutong - proposing a humble solution for the current large numbers of residents. Accepting all of the limits come out of the site, new buildings have no choice other than going up to the sky, while preserving -and extending-spacial properties of Hutong and Si-He-Yuan. Not only does the new high-rise project become part of its context but also forms a unique landscape which echos the traditional culture of Chinese architecture and landscape.