Alley culture has long been the epitome of historical process and social landscape. Living among them, the intimate atmosphere of life reflects the environment, the friendly interaction between people and venues. And the sense of scale that is easily captured or perceived allows us to quickly distinguish the different scenes in which everyday life is embodied as a whole, “micro” meaning embodied in details, becomes a logical method of construction.
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01 Construction — Meaning of “micro”

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House 04, near Shaoxing Road, is a converted penthouse, built on 1 9 4 0 year old building blocks that set the project's unique overall foundation, brick mixed structure, high-rise advantages of the local area, rectangular blocks that carry the main spatial functions, as well as a public roof terrace. Different factors and conditions of the site overlap In addition, how to interpret the “real structure under the image” is a prerequisite for measuring the accuracy or not of a design action.

When it comes to the meaning of the existence of a building or space, Wittwright mentions that “security, practicality, and beauty” are its three fundamental elements, which also reveal the richness of space's diversity. Based on the existing site situation, the private area was deliberately expanded, and the entrance gates were set up on the stairs. In comparison with the original plan, the appropriate scale arrangement created a place for the transition of the entrant's mood.
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02 Scenes — Diagonal Revelation

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Breaking the space shape of a rectangle, the 45° angle of cutting seems to hold endless possibilities. In the Felcher residence, Louis Kahn tried to break the smooth order in an unorthodox way, emerging from the concept of a “room community” built diagonally. Thus, the planar layout of house 04, due to the presence of diagonals, makes specific functional spaces orderly, and the appearance of a single scene presents an organic “dynamic landscape” due to the generation of different elevations.

Based on a floor height of 4.5 m, the partial floor is built to maximize the use of space while meeting the objective needs of the owners, embedding the functionality of the bedroom upstairs and below in the wooden box. A sense of rhythm in the vertical direction and the orderly sense of order in the horizontal direction coexist. The appearance of diagonal lines and different openings in the elevation create a clear and blurred boundary between the public and private areas, interconnected and independent of each other.
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03 Functions — Simple Complexity

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The stairs in the vertical space have a weighty role. Thanks to the location of the plane sharp corners, the stairs to the attic in a light, transparent form, and to the same height, represented by the impression of a “bridge”, visually separate the spatial attributes of the rafter from the living room. A layer of functional structures overlaid between the fictitious, thin, square and arc both expresses the inner order of the construction and contributes to the gradual deepening of the design and the observer's understanding. Hence the strategy of the material, from the ground to the elevation, which looks like a wall skirt, actually extends to the height of the countertop between the exterior windows of the living room, forming a conventional kick-line or wall corner, while concealing the air conditioner under the half-height of the back of the living room, changing the choice, use and texture of materials, creates a home atmosphere of common areas that are rational, hard, easy to clean, and soft, close, and warm in private areas.
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04 Borrowing — Mute of the interface

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Through the entrance gate and up the eleventh level, the former public roof kitchen was converted into an open dining area. Demolish the solid walls and cut the exterior in a sloping manner, use the outdoor platform and build a partial glass roof to ensure the full functionality of the washroom area, dining kitchen and outdoor terrace. The ground stone extends to the top, giving it a white coating at the proper height. Although the material is small in variety, it exhibits characteristics of harmony, purity and continuity. The column, first of all, is the load of the structure as its first responsibility, and secondly, it is expressed. On one side of the dining table, the thin steel columns are consistent with the material of the structural frame, bearing the structural support of the roof. The individual columns create an invisible interface that is completely different from the situation of the real glass interface. This blurred point creates abstract lines, faces and volumes, ultimately eliminating the hidden Between the dining area and the outer window glass.

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Project Information
Project Name: house 04
Design Office: Tao Ho Design Studio
Project Type: Apartment, Adaptive Renovation
Venue Address: Huangpu District, Shanghai, China
Completion date: 2022
Indoor area: 45 sqm
Design Team: Yuanli
Main Material: Oak Wood Finish, Marble, Metal Punched Mesh
Photographer: WM Studio
Construction team: Shanghai Zeihan Architectural Decoration Co., Ltd.
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