Communication is to build a bridge between people.

 [Bridge House] is a reconstruction of loft apartment house, as well as the reconstruction of habitants’ emotion. By taking advantage of Loft’s story height, building a “bridge corridor” in the space to create an open and shared space, we hope this space can establish an emotional bond between two generations while they live together.

Located in Changping District, Zhuxinzhuang, Beijing, the project is a commercial Loft apartment with concrete structure. The house is located in the northwest corner of the whole tower building, with a single-storey construction area of 40 square meters and a height of 4.2 meters. The interior space of the house is installed with two large glass for natural lighting, and the concrete ground beam is built near the window to raise the ground. The clients are a mother and daughter. The daughter is engaged in the museum curation work, and has extraordinary requirements and expectations for her home.

In order to give full play to the advantages of Loft’ story height, two huge daylight openings are separately designed as two vertically connected parts and are imbedded into the shape of “bridge corridor”, which not only gives the house a unique structural form, but also helps the arc structural characteristics form many congruent points. We try to blur the boundary between the upper and lower levels as much as possible to maximize the utilization and connection of the public space.

∇ Diagram

∇  Axonometric

The first floor is mainly designed to meet functional demands of the living space. We design two rest areas by utilizing the platform structure to accurately control the relationship between the stairs and the story height, making the habitants cozy while walking there. Through the vertical connection in the platform on the second floor, and large area of natural lighting, the viewing in three levels provides possibility for people to establish more communication.

In order to increase the natural lighting, daylight openings are set between the kitchen and the small bedroom. Micro-cement is used in the whole ground. The seamless material endows the space with higher integrity.

The sofa in the rest area has a powerful storage function, forming an integration of structure, light, shadow, and function. Beside the sofa hides a small bedroom that can be closed independently. And the small bedroom is the extension of the sofa’s floor slab, as well as the sleeping space of the owner’s mother when she lives there for a long time.

The whole house adopts glass curtain wall for natural lighting. The dining area is the only place installed with windows. The whole platform has a very good view, from which the habitants can overlook the distant mountain scenery and the whole house. And as the landscape node of the room, the whole platform has a very unique aggregation feature.

The staircase of second floor is set behind the original cylinder, which can provide habitants with unexpected paths and discoveries after the space expansion. And it is the prelude of the bridge corridor to the second floor. Inside the staircase designs a storage room, which makes it easy to orderly store daily sundries.

 

The insertion of “bridge corridor” not only extends the whole space, but also creates a good privacy space for habitants in second floor. The partition wall is properly installed in the space, spontaneously forming a sense of order, making the whole house a small art gallery, and creating the feature in line with the owner’s temperament.

“Bridge corridor” can be in transition to the bedroom. Though there is only 14 square meters in the bedroom, it is designed with a double separated private bathroom and shower room, providing the functions of storage, dressing, work and etc.

Habitants can enter into the bedroom through “bridge corridor”. Real wood floor is used in the ground, increasing habitants’ sense of warmth. To ensure the comfort of shower room, we lower the shower space locally, distinguish the integral tonal from that of the bedroom ground. The arc-shaped windows in the bedroom connect the shared vertical space, forming an independent and related relationship between themselves.

The design toilet still follows the principle of function supremacy. Powerful storage function can hide all disordered articles, making the space always “uncluttered and clear”. Harmonious and unified match color, clean and neat lines and wall-mounted toilet make habitants comfortable while using such a narrow space.

In the whole project, we introduce the form of “bridge corridor” by taking advantage of Loft’s storey height and designing two huge daylight openings to ensure the large area of natural lighting, and endow the house unique structural forms and fluidity meanwhile. On the basis of functionality, the space is analyzed and reconstructed to establish the emotional bond for habitants, which is a new definition of Loft house.

∇ Plan

Project Name: Bridge House
Project Address: Changping District, Zhuxinzhuang, Beijing
Project Type: Loft Commercial Residential Apartment
Building Area: 40㎡
Design Company: XIGO STUDIO
Chief Designer: Liu Yang, Shi Yingjie
Scheme Deepening Design: Wang Dan, Fushi
Furniture Customization: GRANVISTA Home Design
Main Materials: Zestman CimentArt, Zestman Wood Flooring, Dupont, Labobo, Nippon paint
Design Period: January 2020-July 2020
Completion of Construction: April 2021
Copywriter and Typesetting: Liu Yang and Zhang Chunying
Construction Foreman: Yang Bo
Space Photographer: Li Ming
Structure Adviser: Lan Tao
Academic Adviser: Zhu Li