Concrete

Concrete Vessel is an experimental house designed by Amateur Architecture Studio for the China House Vision exhibition curated by Kenya Hara, currently shown in Beijing. The partner is Chinese appliance brand Haier. The House Vision theme is future living, so we began imagining a house that truly embraces nature, with fresh air, natural light, greenery and blue sky, all scarce today, while preserving the privacy of family life. Based on the Beijing siheyuan concept, we introduce a thread of nature into the center of a centripetal house through an atrium. However, in this siheyuan the boundary between interior and exterior can be fully opened; the courtyard is actually inside the house and becomes an indispensable part. A continuous living space wraps the courtyard and can be divided into two to four rooms by sliding partitions when needed. All necessary appliances are integrated into the building as two island counters, with electrical equipment placed underground. The structure consists of steel columns at the perimeter and a cantilevered roof and eaves around the atrium. All interior and exterior surfaces, including island shells and furniture, use 3-millimetre glass-fiber-reinforced concrete made from recycled construction waste. Its thinness makes the material very light, and its porosity creates a living environment that filters air and ventilation while admitting light. We named it Concrete Vessel so visitors understand how concrete has become a new material that no longer blocks contact between life and nature but instead creates a friendly building interface. The ultra-thin GRC was developed jointly by Baogui Stone Art and Amateur Architecture Studio.