Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Beijing, China Structure Project, Design Images, Chinese Architecture

Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing

Micro Yuan’er Building Development in China – design by ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke Architects

Location: Beijing, China

Photos: AKTC / Wang Ziling, ZAO, standardarchitecture

A children’s library selected for its embodiment of contemporary life in the traditional courtyard residences of Beijing’s Hutongs.

Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke

Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre

3 Oct 2016

Hutong Children’s Library & Art Centre in China

Abu Dhabi, UAE, 3rd of October 2016 – The winners of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture were announced today in a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.

One of the 6 winning projects:

Micro Yuan’er, Beijing

Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing

Hutong Children's Library and Art Centre

A small-scale project that enriches bonds amongst communities and revives Hutong life.

Hutong Children's Library and Art Centre

Cha’er Hutong is a quiet spot one kilometre from Tiananmen Square in the city centre. Number 8 in this neighbourhood, located near a major mosque, is a typical da-za-yuan (big-messy-courtyard) once occupied by over a dozen families.

Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre

The courtyard is about 300-400 years old and once housed a temple that was then turned into residences in the 1950s. Over the past fifty or sixty years, each family built a small add-on kitchen in the courtyard.

Hutong Children's Library and Art Centre

Almost all of them have been wiped out with the renovation practices of the past years. In redesigning, renovating and reusing the informal add-on structures instead of eliminating them, it was intended to recognise them as an important historical layer and as a critical embodiment of Beijing’s contemporary civil life in Hutongs that has so often been neglected.

Hutong Children's Library and Art Centre

In concert with the families, a nine-metre-square children’s library built of plywood was inserted underneath the pitched roof of an existing building.

Hutong Children's Library and Art Centre

Under a big Chinese scholar tree, one of the former kitchens was redesigned into a six-metre-square miniature art space made from traditional bluish-grey brick. Through this small-scale intervention in the courtyard, bonds between communities have been strengthened and the Hutong life of local residents enriched.

Hutong Children's Library and Art Centre

Award Cycle: 2014-2016 Cycle
Status: Recipient
Location: Beijing, China
Client: Dashilar Investment
Architect: ZAO/standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke
Design: 2012-14
Size: Built area: 190 m2; Site area: 350 m2
Completed: 2014

Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre

Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre

Film on YouTube

Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre Cha’er Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre

Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing Building, an Aga Khan Award for Architecture Winner in 2016 information from Aga Khan Award

Aga Khan Award for Architecture Winner in 2016

Location: Beijing, People’s Republic of China

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Website: Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre