Rural House + Starry Ending Nights Homestay
Starry Ending Nights Homestay is located at Yanliu Road in Four Season Flower Sea, Sinai Town, Yanqing District. It is surrounded by a lot of local housings and its site has a strong domestic atmosphere. Many farm-life scenes can be seen on the sides of roads. Drying corns and lazy puppies are everywhere here.
The client’s father is almost 80 years old and he is a local farmer who is kind and genuine. This project intends to include the old man’s house and a homestay. The architect hopes that visitors can access local lives more.
The original building is a traditional three-sided enclosed courtyard. We remove 1/3 of the area from the rooms on the east and west sides. Then, we replace the south-side courtyard wall with a box and linear low walls. These design features open up the visual contact from inside toward the exterior rural environment, creating a direct connection with it. In this way, the courtyard is not isolated anymore. The self-use house is covered with simple stripped white bricks with a sense of age. And the extension of this space is on the side of neighboring streets and buildings. It includes farmland, courtyards, a chess table, and an outdoor sitting set. For the old man, this design setting will bring him a sense of belonging. So it does for visitors.
The brand of this homestay is called “Starry Ending Nights Homestay (Ye Lan Xing She)” which means you can stay in the courtyard while counting stars. We use a triangular-tent-like building with openings at the top of it. As it is inserted diagonally into the courtyard, guests can hold parties within. At the end of this space, there is a triangular floor-to-ceiling glass. And the ground is paved with red bricks throughout the courtyard to weaken the boundary between inside and outside areas. The project has a small courtyard. Therefore, to maximize usable areas, we rotate the triangular house by 50 degrees and create two separate outdoor courtyards of different sizes. One of the courtyards is more private while the other is more open. We reconstruct the original layout so the space is more unique and interesting, providing more possibilities.
The rooms on the west side include public kitchen and dining areas and those on the north and east sides are used as guest rooms. The north rooms preserve original gable roofs. In this area, partition walls are opened and set back to the interior. A public corridor was added to connect three guest rooms. Each of them is ensured respective independence and privacy. We keep the structure and materials for the exterior wall and clean as well as fix the pebbled road from the original house. We use the existing exterior window sills to make two sets of bar tables, to connect inside and outside through diverse function areas.
The best state of running a homestay is that the owner can chat regularly with the guests, discussing local culture and traditions. Windows are between the old man’s house and the homestay while maintaining individual privacy. And the most valuable feature of this design is its versatility. People are able to feel the pureness, enthusiasm, simplicity, and realness environment and atmosphere and they can be relaxed and moving. Hope the kind smiles from the old man can stay in the memory of every guest.
