Location: Beijing, China.

Architect: DL Atelier.

The Beijing Hutong has undergone significant changes over time, and a new small Hutong house at number 36 Guozijian Street seeks to preserve the memories of the past while also embracing the future. The house retains the building-yard relationship and original building scale, while also incorporating a lower concrete frame and upper wood frame to demonstrate the grafting of old and new. The black and red bricks from the century-old house and recent addition are all reserved, and the construction of the building applied a completely different technology. The house aims to record the current status of Hutong life and promote more space, better living quality, and a better relationship with neighbors. The design team initially had two other designs, including a machine-like house and a home without walls, but ultimately chose the final design with an intact brick wall and horizontal window on top. The house is both familiar and strange, seeming to have been built for 50 years and serving as a memory from the future.