Articles by Collin Chen

Xintiandi Style II is a playful dialogue between old and new, its community, and a much-needed statement about recycling and sustainability. Together we Have been striving to express an unseen design approach, with great attention to the community, environment, and sustainability. The building itself is a city block and operates as one, with several entrances on opposite streets that connect its residential, office, and commercial surroundings. Intensifying this connection was our intention. By activating and opening the building, we invite people in and let it function as an interior street, leading visitors through the building. The mall becomes then a modern public space, in a dynamized neighborhood, where people gather and connect.

B&B and Games – At the end of 2020, near the Great Wall at Shuiguan in Huairou, Beijing, we designed three projects for Xiaoxi B&B simultaneously, perhaps it is more appropriate to call them rural hotels than B&Bs. I have designed and run such hotels before, and I would love to have a unique living experience of “breaking away from daily life” and a lifestyle of “here and now”. Architecture, as a carrier of this conception, is not a “home building” in the first place, for it holds little real life and memory of the owner, instead, it resembles a “theme park” with the characteristics above, a reciprocating game between reality and fantasy. Since it is a game, there must be rules. The owner’s requirements are simple: to keep the characters of the three existing houses. And we will make up the rules.

A boat brimming with autumn hues,
Ten miles of lake glitter spread wide.
The water deity halts me to behold,
Sunlight in waves shimmer and unfold.
——ZHANG Xiaoxiang, “Hindered by Wind Below Peak”

Project origin – Xialapu Village administratively subordinates to Wama Township, Longyang District, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province. The local government has always hoped to build an amalgamated dwelling to improve and solve the housing needs of the lonely elderly in the village. At the same time, it can also rent spare rooms to the families of left-behind children who have a long way to go to school at a low price, so as to make it more convenient for them to go to and from school. These rental fees can be used as daily maintenance and related expenses for amalgamated dwellings. According to the local government, the construction cost of this conglomerate must be low, and it must have the function of 22 living rooms. Xialapu Village responded to the national poverty alleviation and relocation policy in 2018, The scattered people are concentrated here, and a new village is being planned and built. The pattern of the new village has changed from random growth to deliberately planned fan-shaped belt layout, and its architecture has also changed from traditional soil-based houses to modern frame commercial and residential buildings, which is a “standard” modern new rural style. The amalgamated dwelling is located in the east corner of the new village. Seeing that the existing new countryside is surrounded by white walls and tiles, we plan to design an “earthen” house with local materials and continue the local traditional architectural style, so as to preserve the collective memory of the villagers. In addition, we also invited the “One Specialized Village” team as a design cooperation agency to participate in the project.

The Yangtze River Crossing Campaign Memorial Park is located in the lower parts of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, on the opposite side of Qixia Mountain, in the estuary of the Hua-Zikou River, on the riverfront of Longpao New City. On April 21, 1949, the Yangtze River Crossing campaign began here. The People’s Liberation Army’s 34th Army fought, crossed the river, and successfully landed in Qixia from the Hua-Zikou River. As a result, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2020, the Longpao administration began construction of the project to commemorate The Yangtze River Crossing Campaign and serve the inhabitants of the new city.