The Origin Villa was commissioned to dismantle six buildings in a rural “empty nest” village in Tonglu, and to rebuild as a new resort.

Scattered throughout the hidden village, it is obvious to us that the architecture should be in harmony with its surrounding. The existing villagers’ houses are built with beautiful rammed-earth walls made using local soil. However, if we just renovate using the same traditional method, it is inevitable that the view of the charming landscape outside will be blocked entirely and the interior space will feel compressed because of the heavy walls. Furthermore, if the new resort is solely constructed with country-style rammed-earth walls, it will just be a restoration project and may not be so attractive to many tourists. The task was to balance two seemingly contradicting conditions: to fully enjoy the abundant nature of the site (open) while harmonizing with the existing houses (enclosed walls).

The village nests within the mountain, and the houses were built following the contour line of the mountainous terrain pointing at different directions. Although the distance between each building is relatively close, there is still a good view for each one because they never face each other.

We used different local materials, such as bamboo, red bricks, stone, and carbonized wood, to highlight each building’s unique site situation, also expressed in each one with a space of rest in nature (living room) and a more private space enclosed with rammed earth walls (bedroom). The coexistence of these two types of space is our solution to the two conflicting conditions.

Blending into the landscape of the village, we hope to give a new perspective of the beautiful scenery through our architecture.