Heat Exchange

From the road, the boxy shape of House W offers no clue to its spacious, airy interiors, the result of a carefully considered design crafted by Beijing-based Atelier About Architecture

- Phoebe Liu

Born in China and educated in Australia, Wang Ni and Zhang Dawei, the founders of Atelier About Architecture (A A A), have a considerable international footprint, despite their young age. Having practised their craft in many different countries, they launched their studio in 2013 and have since set about embracing their traditional cultural inheritance while introducing innovations set against a background of internationalism. Their aim is simple: to dispel the notion of a gap between Eastern and Western cultures.

House W, or “Jagged Villa” as the architects describe it, is an intensely personal project, as Wang and Zhang were simultaneously both client and architect. It took the pair three years to complete the design, which naturally underwent numerous redesigns and adjustments over that period. But there’s nothing quite like realising one’s own dreams to spur you on – especially when the effort invested in the project has resulted in significant growth for the studio.

One of the first challenges that faced Wang and Zhang had to do with the terrain on which House W sits. With its back to the hills, icy blasts of air scour the north facade of the home; a serious concern given Beijing’s notoriously frigid winters. “We needed to ensure that internal conservation of heat would be sufficient during cold weather to guarantee energy efficiency,” Wang says. “Meeting the physical challenges of heat insulation while also creating a humanistic living environment internally was a challenge.”