Captain’s House

Captain’s House is located on the southeast end of Huangqi Peninsula, in the Fujian Province. The damp and erosive nature of seaside caused the unsafety of the existing structure and large-area water leakage during over 20 years of use, which, of become the main design issues to be addressed. Vector Architects’ design work started with the study of structural reinforcement. After a series of careful comparisons, Beijing-based studio decided to add a layer of 12cm concrete wall to the original brick masonry walls.

  The locations and forms of openings also get carefully reconsidered. The new concrete window frame sticks out from the outside wall, which prevents excessive rainwater from seeping into the window from the wall surface. The thickness is then designed into “window-furniture” system: window is no longer a simple opening, but serves as a medium space situating between nature and the interior space.

Vector Architects choose vault to be the structural form of the third floor. It reduces the possibility of water leakage to an extreme for it barely allows any rainwater to stay. Vault is directional. It connects two sides of sea with dramatically different characters: one being the serene sea whereas the other one being the noisy port. This added floor serves as a multifunctional living space: it accommodates visiting family and friends and functions perfectly as a gym or an activity room as well.

Captain’s House, Beijiao Village, China
Program: single family house
Architecture: Vector Architects
Design team: Gong Dong (principal architect), Chen Liu (project architect), Dongping Sun (construction management), Dan Zhao, Cunyu Jiang, Zhao Zhang
Site architect: Zhenqiang Chen, Liangliang Zhao
Structural & MEP engineering: China Academy of Building Research
Structural consultant: Congzhen Xiao, Yixin Du
Area: 470 sqm
Completion: 2017