YiXi Courtyard / Wonder Architects

A Courtyard. It was still 2018 then. Looking back now, it feels like a long time has passed. I remember at the beginning of that year, a game called "Travel Frog" was all the rage. In the summer, Russia hosted the World Cup. The capital's airports were crowded, and it seemed as if Beijing's property prices would keep soaring indefinitely. It was during that winter when YiXi's friends approached me. They expressed a desire to create a completely new space for YiXi. YiXi, a renowned cultural institution in China, was in the midst of its most dynamic phase at the time. Every few weeks, a popular YiXi talk would go viral among social circles. Having been a speaker myself, receiving a design invitation from YiXi was indeed an honor. However, it also brought a certain level of anxiety, akin to renovating a friend's house - both exciting and somewhat daunting. YiXi's original office was located in a high-end apartment building, occupying a spacious flat with four bedrooms. Although the atmosphere was cozy, it felt somewhat like a playing house, with numerous issues in space partitioning and item storage. Consequently, they decided to move to a new location near the East Third Ring Road in Beijing.