ARK FOR AN ANT TRIBE

by Yuen-Wah Williams

This project addresses the acute housing needs of well educated but income poor young people who come to Beijing to seek their future - affectionately known as the ‘Ant Tribe’ in China.  Conceived as a co-living mega-block with floating courtyards, rooftop running tracks, and community programmes open to the wider neighbourhood at the ground level, the novel tectonics draws inspiration from both traditional low-rise high-density Hutong courtyards and local experiments in Soviet-era social condensers. The generous and intensely social outdoor spaces become rooms in themselves, responds to the changing patterns of life in a pandemic.

Third Year projects overview.