Architect Ma Yansong thinks so Welcome back to The Architect's City, a monthly series inviting an emerging architect to reimagine an existing structure in his or her city, submitting a speculative proposal for Curbed readers. This month, Beijing?s Ma Yansong of MAD Architects wants to bring new life to traditional courtyard homes.
A shimmering, stainless steel bubble is hardly an unobtrusive object. In few historic contexts would it seem the most respectful architectural addition to a building. But for Beijing?s hutongs, the city?s traditional courtyard homes, this is just what architect Ma Yansong envisions as a vessel for much-needed home facilities, like toilets. To Ma, who opened MAD Architects in Beijing in 2004 after studying under Zaha Hadid, the bubbles preserve what?s most essential about the hutongs. He may not be at all wrong.
MAD Architects

Beijing?s hutongs were constructed in the 13th century and remained generally intact through the first half of the 20th. A single family often occupied a sole courtyard house, composed of a series of slim, low living areas oriented around a rectangular central open courtyard. Kitchens and bathrooms were often communal, and while family life took place behind alley walls, community life extended into the streets. In the 1950s and 1960s, though, as the Chinese rushed to cities, causing an acute shortage of housing in Beijing, the homes became overcrowded. Not only multiple generations, but now also ...