Lee’s Residence in Pu’er / Zhaoyang Architects

Pu’er is a small city in southern Yunnan Province. The region enjoys an agreeable climate and a preferable natural environment. The client had asked for a house in which three generations of her family would live together. The site is in an affluent area with freestanding villas, mostly three stories high. The new house is a three-story structure of grey off-form concrete walls textured with rough wooden formwork. This direct expression of concrete and a refusal to express a preference for color marks a humble but uncompromising posture against the light pink and yellow buildings nearby. A curved boundary wall on the north side acts as a buffer against traffic noise. Major spaces of the house are oriented to the hill on the southwestern side of the site since this orientation is relatively private and related directly to nature.