Plain House

The client has two studios and he hopes that the renovation can shift the living functions from the first studio to the second studio. The first studio has now been repurposed as his own museum, while the second studio has been converted into his house, a painter's house. A bridge connects these two spaces.The inner walls were painted gray, an ideal backdrop color for Li’s paintings. In contrast to the thus far monochromatic use of color, we used Li’s trademark color, red, to paint the living room. A singular skylight was positioned in the southwest corner of the living room ceiling. Plain House’s façade is a lighter gray. Before the exterior paint fully dried, we use a wooden mold to print leaf patterns onto the façade, making the gray exterior shimmer in the sunlight. We used fluorite to dry the stone design of the skirt of the wall, hoping it may shine like a star in the night sky above. There is a large camphor tree in the courtyard, so the north side of the house is bounded by the tree’s trunk and roots. The tree’s canopy inevitably presses up against the house. Out of respect for the tree, the wall here is sloped inwards. In order to highlight the tree’s texture, we changed the material of this part of the façade into steel. The steel will mature with the natural environment.