SI HE YUAN TERRACES

This project seeks to address the issue of transient, intergenerational families in Beijing and the currently cramped conditions that they live in through a reconfiguration of the traditional Si He Yuan courtyard houses into terraces. Recent cultural and economic trends in Beijing have led to a way of living where young families often have one parent working away from home for months at a time and rely on visiting grandparents to provide childcare. These grandparents travel into the city from the countryside to help out and must live in cramped conditions with no sense of privacy or outdoor space. This project seeks to reprovide these grandparents with a sense of privacy and connection to nature and neighbour. It also provides the young family with open space in an otherwise cramped and busy city. There is also extra space for the family to let out to young, single people in Beijing who currently live in very poor conditions, allowing the young family to have an extra income and bringing back the market to the wider community.