This private residence, named Chui Yuan, was designed by the Shanghai HuaDu Architecture and Urban Design Group in 2017. The home is located in Shanghai, China, and covers an area of only 35 square meters. Don’t let its tiny size fool you, however – this apartment is meant to serve as a home for three generations of the same family, and it delivers.
In order to complete this seemingly difficult feat, the architects decided to design the home while taking advantage of its verticality. Just as in a traditional Chinese garden, where the landscape is meant to be a miniature and idealized version of the real world, so does the interior of this home manage to fit all necessary elements that make up a home in its reduced and limited space. As such, the architectural firm made it their goal to create an experience that felt much larger than the space actually available.
In order to do this, they implemented many movable doors and furniture in order to transform the space from closed to open, creating an interior that was much more dynamic, and which, depending on one’s perspective, would feel different as one moved. This, in Chinese garden making, is called, “moving by seeing.”
