White Woods Hostel Parasitic in Hutong Beijing
White Woods Hostel is a youth hostel located in Yangmeizhu Street Dashilar Beijing. It is a practical application of Hu tong Parasitic, which is focus on updating program of old buildings in Hutong by Yeah Archkids.
White Woods Hostel is like a white forest parasitic in Hutong. It puts an independent flexible alterable space system into an only 12-square-meter second-floor attic without the old building damage. During the 2015 Beijing Design Week, it was a public space for exhibitions, lectures or workshops by day, while it was an air guestroom at night.
This program is located in No. 56 Yangmeizhu Street Dashilar Beijing. After the Design Week, it will officially be a room of a youth hostel, which can be booked on Airbnb.
Why we are parasitic in Hutong?
The Genes of the Original Space
In the Hutong of Southern Beijing, there are all kinds of parasitic behavior: small house is parasitic in big one, new house is parasitic in old one, sheds made of iron sheets are parasitic in brick house, private constructions are parasitic in public yards – parasitism has injected strong vigor into the locality, and White Woods inherits the gene of the original space, and that is the way we choose to update this area.
Low Gentle Profile
To the disabled old buildings in Dashilar district, Hutong Parasitic would strengthen the structure with a low gentle profile rather than significant re-architecture, besides, it could keep the traces of live as much as possible.
Improve Living Conditions
The modular framework of Hutong Parasitic includes many basic modules like toilets, shower cubicles, whereby users can customize their rooms according to their requirements, to improve living conditions in Hutong.
Variable Multiple-Functions System
Variability of the system, which can realize by removable framework and function modules, can effectively composite more functions, and the system could solve the problem of the limited space by complex function.
Switching Between Public and Intimate Space
The Hutong Parasitic system could quickly switch between public and intimate space, switching a guestroom to a studio, or transforming a bedroom into a caféor an exhibition room. It can be changed into any kind of space, also it would solve the conflicts of spaces in Hutong.
Reasonable and Sustainable Reform System
The complicated and expensive instruments of transformation are unsuited for Dashilar area, while the scalable changeable modular system is a reasonable and sustainable reform system with low cost and high efficiency, which is fit for the complex space and the residents living level in this area. It can be put into any complicated space, meanwhile leave room for re-extending and individuation according to users’ needs.
The Emergence of Poetry
With the fast growth and expansion of Hutong Parasitic in Dashilar, which just like a bunch of saplings deriving nutrients and becoming trees, the spaces become a network: new-old, human-inhuman, collective-individual, traditional-modern. They are all beyond themselves to mix together, becoming an abundant and poetic forest.
