House on the house used to be shanty above the slums. It was ruins contained whole family with 6 persons on the top of an 86 years history water tower. Architect decided to totally reconstruct the house base on left structure of water tower as meanwhile can’t change house contour according to the code. And the new house should be a complex system with different subsystem but influent each other in content and space with simple display.
Architect must fight against low budget, tight neighborhood and construction period. Just want to create a perfect universe named nutshell full of all kinds of possibilities, but the last presentation should look easy that is called Chinese aesthetics.
The 34 square meters nutshell especial designed as the family’s own ergonomic and wishes. It is followed the staircase by skylight as leading run through 6 levers with foyer, kitchen, living room, laundry, 2 bathrooms, green wall, 2 bedrooms, goldfish bowl, painted penthouse and a vertical garden. It is total universe in scenery of shanghai.
The universe hung in the air was owner’s utopia as his thought with happiness and dignity, also satisfied with complete functions including hoist help for hanging weight. When the door closed, he would be king as he wished.
Architect painted the whole water tower. The new façade made the dilapidated community look more vibrant. It was warm accepted by the locals at last with this subtle change which showed their attitude, each day is better than yesterday.
Design Team: XIA Murong, GE Yufei, WANG Suyu, LIU Qicai,YU Junfeng
