Concrete Vessel
Concrete Vessel is an experimental house designed by FCJZ for the China House Vision exhibition – curated by the renowned Japanese designer Kenya Hara – which is currently on view in Beijing. The architects’ corporate partner is Haier, a popular Chinese home appliance brand.
As the theme of House Vision is about future living, the architects began to imagine a house that would truly embrace a nature that is defined by fresh air, natural light, living plants, and blue sky, which have become scarce commodities in present day – but which also maintains the privacy required of domestic life.
Built upon the notion of a traditional Beijing courtyard house, the architects aimed to bring a bit of nature to the center of an otherwise introverted dwelling typology, in the form of an atrium. However, in this version of a courtyard house, the boundaries between the interior and exterior spaces can be completely opened up; the courtyard is literally inside the house and becomes an integral part of the architecture.
A continuous living space wraps around the courtyard and can be divided into two to four rooms by sliding partitions if such needs rise. Meanwhile, all necessary electronics are totally integrated into the building system in the form of two counters and underground equipment.
The structural system consists of steel columns along the periphery of the building with a cantilevered roof and eaves around the central courtyard. The material used on all surfaces inside and outside of the building, including the casings for the appliances as well as furniture, is a 3mm thin Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (or GRC), made from recycled construction debris. Its thinness makes this material very lightweight and its porosity creates a living environment that breathes and filters the air while allowing light to percolate through.
The project team named the building Concrete Vessel to prompt the exhibition visitors to discover how concrete has evolved into a new substance, one that no longer necessarily cuts off the connection between life and nature, but on the contrary, helps to create a friendly interface.
Project: Concrete Vessel / Location: Chaoyang Qu, China / Architects: Atelier FCJZ / Lead architect: Yung Ho Chang / Area: 184.0m2 / Category: Arts & Architecture / Collaborators: Haier / Landscape architecture: Original Ecology Landscape Co., Ltd. / Structure consultation: Minsheng Xu / Project Year: 2018 / Photographs: ©Fangfang Tian (courtesy of the architect); courtesy of the Hair; courtesy of the Japan Design Center
