House Of Cross / Chaoffice

Architects: Chaoffice
Area: 334 m²
Year: 2023
Photographs: Yumeng Zhu
Manufacturers: Dongfanggang Wood Industry, Jingchi, NVC Lighting
Lead Architects: CHENG Zhi
Category: Houses, House Interiors
Design Team: SHAO Jinrui
Engineering: GAO Xuemei
Collaborators: ZHANG Youjiang
Clients: FENG Fenggang
City: Beijing
Country: China

House of Cross residential project designed by Chaoffice in Tongzhou, Beijing redefines the rural courtyard dwelling for multi-generational living and remote work in a post-pandemic context. The single-story structure adapts to strict zoning regulations that limit building height and footprint, resulting in a 300-square-meter plan on a 700-square-meter site. Formed as a cross-shaped layout, the house distributes its four wings toward the site’s perimeter, accommodating distinct rooms for grandparents, parents, children, and guests, while the elongated central core supports shared public functions. This spatial strategy provides both separation and proximity, addressing intergenerational rhythms. The structural system retreats toward the center, freeing the perimeter and allowing glazed facades to open toward the courtyard, while lowered eaves create sheltered thresholds and moderate interior exposure. The project resists abstract tradition and instead engages with real constraints and lived experience. Its inward openness contrasts with a restrained exterior, where brick walls and sloped roofs respond to the site’s terrain, forming a low, grounded presence along the street.

The three-year pandemic significantly altered patterns of living and working, and the owner of this house experienced those changes directly. In 2023, they chose to return to their parents’ village home to construct a new residence that could support three generations and function as a home office. Looking ahead, there is an intention to settle here permanently, eliminating the need to commute between urban and rural settings for work. The design is focused on addressing practical, lived realities rather than referencing abstract ideas of “tradition” or established aesthetic norms. Kenneth Frampton once observed that engaging with a site’s inherent challenges can lead to the emergence of critical regionalism. This perspective aligns closely with the architect’s own design approach.

The project is situated in Tongzhou, Beijing, where residential building regulations are notably stricter than in other suburban districts. For example, residential plots are restricted to single-story structures with an eave height not exceeding 3 meters. As a consequence, Xifa Village maintains a low and expansive character. Even the more recently renovated homes adhere to the traditional heyuan (courtyard house) layout, remaining close to the ground and integrated with the broad surrounding landscape. The architect’s initial visit to the site took place on a rainy afternoon. The 700-square-meter courtyard made the existing house seem small beneath the vast sky. Despite the overcast conditions, the low eaves did not obscure the distant patches of blue sky and sunlight. This impression of openness and spatial continuity was the first element the client identified as central to the vision for the new house.

Given the generous size of the site and the project’s budget limitations, the design called for a single-story house with a 300-square-meter footprint. The result is a modestly scaled structure paired with a spacious courtyard, serving as both an adaptation and a reinterpretation of the traditional rural courtyard house. The building is conceived as an interwoven composition, with its wings extending in various directions and connecting at their ends. To preserve the proportions of the central courtyard, the side wings were consolidated and positioned inward from the perimeter, creating a narrow secondary courtyard at the rear. In a similar move, the north-facing main hall was shifted slightly south to open up a backyard. This configuration allows each wing to receive natural light from two sides, while maintaining open, uninterrupted sightlines across the entire courtyard.

The gabled ends of the roofs extend outward toward the boundaries of the site, forming a cross-like configuration when viewed from above. The spatial layout is evenly distributed, resulting in a series of terminal points that contain private rooms for the grandparents, parents, children, and visiting guests. The grandparents, like many elderly couples, preferred separate sleeping spaces, and the outermost positions of the house allowed for this subtle separation. If these terminal points are understood as extended limbs, the center of the house, composed of its connective spaces, becomes an elongated and gently segmented core that accommodates various public functions. This arrangement reflects the patterns of multi-generational living, offering both proximity and separation where needed. People move through these spaces, transitioning between shared family gatherings and more private interactions.

To establish a sense of spatial openness, the building’s structural framework is pulled inward toward the roof ridge. Structural components from various directions meet at the shear wall cores, creating a cross-shaped structural anchor. The house is supported centrally, similar to a mushroom, with its eaves extending outward in all directions. By removing structural constraints from the perimeter, the facade becomes more transparent, allowing interior and exterior spaces to merge. The cross-shaped layout frames a sequence of views that move from near to far: courtyard, house, courtyard again, revealing layered scenes of daily life.

If the upper frames of the glass facades had been aligned directly with the eaves, the interiors would have received over 3 meters of vertical glazing. However, this would have made the occupants feel overly exposed and would have significantly increased energy consumption. Instead, the eaves beams were lowered to 2.4 meters, allowing the eaves to extend downward, resembling the edge of a mushroom cap. This approach preserves a comfortable ceiling height and creates a sense of shelter. Whether in bright sunlight or heavy rain, those seated by the window experience a feeling of protection, as if nestled beneath a mushroom cap.

While the house remains open and transparent toward the courtyard, its outward-facing facade presents a contrasting character. The only elevation that faces outward belongs to one of the terminal rooms. The entrance, a semi-outdoor space, extends downward along the sloped roofline, and the brick perimeter wall, responding to the incline of the street and site, steps inward as it rises. Overall, the building maintains a low and unobtrusive presence along the roadside.