Xizhimen Port Apartment

E PLUS DESIGN

In the Xizhimen Boyu project, facing the dual challenges of limited space and lighting requirements, we chose to break through the limitations with innovation. Lighting is not only a functional requirement, but also a key factor that affects the emotions and experiences of residents. Therefore, we broke with convention and rethought the original structure by cleverly adding lighting surfaces to the east-west shear walls, achieving a breakthrough design of four sided lighting. This meticulous renovation not only solves the problem of lighting in the rooms, but also fills each space with the warmth and vitality of natural light, significantly enhancing the comfort and happiness of living.

On the urban stage, “Iconic” buildings play leading role which attract most attention, but those “unremarkable” buildings act invisible role in our daily life which to a greater extent form our city, affecting our lives. In Beijing, many of these old buildings have been built in recent decades, and a large proportion of them are no longer in line with the needs of urban development, and are facing with the need for functional and structural transformation. A wider range of urban renewal has gradually become a new subject for architects.

Vanke, the owner of the project, as a service provider for urban life, has also made urban renewal an important focus in Beijing in recent years. The Xizhimen Port Apartment project is a renovation of “unremarkable” old building.

Project background

This project is located near Xizhimen Metro station, north of the Second Ring Road. It is a 10-storey building that built in the 80’s. It used to be a hotel, a SPA and a KTV. The main structure is composed of an L-shaped building and a three-storey annex building on the east.

Site Strategy

The south side of the project is a two-fork junction, naturally forming a triangular open space which is raised up 1m from the street, originally used as parking. After the transformation, the Triangle site has become a small square facing the street. Around the square, there are café and small shops, and combined with stepping landscape, together forming a rare nice open space in the old urban district. The main entrance of apartment is located in the quiet corner of the square; behind the L-shaped main building, it is a small courtyard that includes gardens, open-air cinemas and small playground. This courtyard is the main outdoor space for apartment tenants.

Planning Revision

The architect made different adjustments to each floor. By adding windows on the east and west side wall at typical floors, a more active urban interface is presented, at the same time day lighting for each floor is increased by 50%. It provides flexible and private spaces for young tenants within limited building area.

One the way home, the tenant will go by the café and retails around the corner plaza, through the colonnade underneath the colorful ceiling, then arrive in the building entrance. The ground floor is totally remodeled with many amenities options, including a shared kitchen, community living room, small theater, dining hall, and a shared courtyard etc., for the tenants to enjoy time and socialize.

Façade renovation

Residence and clothing represent a person's temperament. Apartments designed for innovative young people naturally need a vibrant high level "good looking" facade. The original building has large number of reinforced beams and columns exposed on the façade, with variant spacing; also the renovated facade needs to find space for the AC unit of each room. So the architect designed aluminum window frame projecting out from exterior wall. The scale of the window frame increases at the building corner, as if the entire building were twisting on the square to form a vivid city sculpture. Bright colors bring façade rich expression, the inside of the window sleeve changes from orange at the top to pale yellow at the bottom, like the color spectrum of the lunar eclipse, and also celebrating Beijing's golden autumn while the Port Apartment opens in October.

Project Credits

Total Area：11,500 m2

Completion：2018.10

Client：Vanke Beijing

Architect：E PLUS DESIGN-SZA

Chief Designer: Wang Zhe

Participating Designer: Shi Wei, Wen Zewei, Wang Meilin, Zhang Yan, Han Qi, Hong Wei

Photography: Jin Weiqi

Construction Drawing: Victory Star

Interior Design: CUN Design

Decoration: Beijing 9h Design

Landscape design: LAC landscape and architecture Design