A contemporary dwelling of the Chinese Northwest

Silk Road Courtyard

Rooted in the vernacular wisdom of the Northwest and reinterpreted through modern design: rammed-earth walls, flat roofs and three courtyards held in quiet dialogue with the mountains.

Site
Hexi Corridor, Gansu
Coordinates
38.93° N · 100.45° E
Altitude
1,540 m

Read it as a handscroll is read — right to left. Scroll to unroll.

Passage I — Distance DE
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01Landscape

Before the house, the mountain.

The Qilian range stands forty kilometres south, snow on its crest until June. The house is drawn low so the ridge stays whole: stepped volumes follow the natural gradient of an old loess terrace, cutting as little as possible and keeping every existing poplar.

  • 3Terraces
  • 0.4Avg. cut, m
  • 23Poplars kept
A painted mountain landscape that dissolves, as you scroll, into a photograph of hazy ridgelines
Pl. 01The painted mountain becomes the real one — keep scrolling
01

Landscape integration

Stepped volumes follow the natural gradient, minimising disruption and preserving existing vegetation.

Existing grade +1.2+2.4+3.6 Poplar, kept
Layered desert hills fading into a pale sky
Pl. 02Ridges to the south, late morning
Passage II — Route DE
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02The corridor

A corridor of wells, walls and courtyards.

For two thousand years caravans moved west through the Hexi Corridor, a thousand-kilometre ribbon of oases pinched between the Qilian Mountains and the Gobi. Every day's march ended in the same shape: a wall against the wind, a door, a yard with water. The house begins there.

Three camels crossing pale dunes
Pl. 03Caravan country
Map

The Hexi Corridor — westward, as the scroll unrolls

DEMO The site N ↑ 0200 km Gobi desert Qilian Shan
A three-tiered gate tower standing on an old earthen wall
Pl. 04A gate tower on the old wall
Passage III — Earth DE
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Aerial view of eroded loess ridges and gullies
Pl. 05Loess country: wind-laid silt, hundreds of metres deep

03Material

Earth that remembers the day.

The walls are rammed from the loess dug for the foundations: sieved, dampened, stabilised with a little lime and pounded in 150 mm lifts. At 600 mm thick they hold the afternoon heat and return it to the rooms after dark, ten to twelve hours later.

  • 0km the earth travelled
  • 10–12Hours of thermal lag
  • 600mm wall
The shadow of a tree on a textured earth wall
Pl. 06Shadow on a rammed wall
600 Day —absorb Night —release Timber lintel Flat roof 150 mmlifts × 28
03

Earth & materiality

Loess walls and timber lintels give thermal mass and quiet; openings are few, deep and precise.

Passage IV — Gate DE
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A deep opening in an earthen wall framing a courtyard and trees
Pl. 07The threshold opens as you approach

04Arrival

Six steps from the road to the silence.

A long timber portal is the only opening on the street. Its roof of slatted elm filters the light into bars; six shallow steps lift you out of the dust, and by the last one the road has gone quiet.

01Road
02Dust
03Shade
04Timber
05Stone
06Silence
A long covered walkway of dark posts over gravel
Pl. 08The portal, 14 m of shade
Passage V — Courtyard DE
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A single tree casting shadows across an earth-toned courtyard
Pl. 09The tree court, 15:40

05Plan

Three courtyards, three temperatures.

The plan is a sequence of open rooms. The entry court is for arriving; the tree court, shaded by an old jujube, is for living; the well court at the back is for stillness. Every room opens onto one of them, never onto the road.

Gate Entrycourt Hall Tree court Rooms Wellcourt N ↑ Airflow — south to north
02

Courtyard system

Courtyards organise light, ventilation and circulation, creating layered spatial experiences and privacy.

07:00Scroll-time in the tree court: the jujube's shadow follows you
Stepping stones across dry grass in a walled court
Pl. 10The well court
Passage VI — Hall DE
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Bars of late light falling across a timber wall
Pl. 11Winter sun reaching the back wall

06Interior

Rooms that face inward.

Deep reveals in the earth walls cut the high summer sun and let the low winter sun reach the back wall. In the hall a single window, 4.8 metres long, frames the tree court like a painting laid on its side.

A long horizontal window in a cream-walled room
Pl. 12The long window
  1. 1A table of elm, 3.6 metres longSeats twelve at New Year
  2. 2A kang platform, warmed from belowFired with apricot prunings
  3. 3One window, 4.8 metres, facing the courtSill at 450 mm, a bench
  4. 4A clay teapot, always warmJasmine in spring, brick tea in winter
  5. 5Lime-washed niches for booksCut into the 600 mm wall
An earthen vaulted room with a pale floor
Pl. 13Vaulted store, north range
A clay teapot and two cups on a dark table
Pl. 14Always warm
Passage VII — Roof DE
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Flat-roofed earthen walls with a small window against a clear sky
Pl. 15Parapet, west range

07Roofscape

In the Northwest, the roof is a room.

Apricots dry up here in August, families sleep here in the heat of July, and on autumn evenings you can watch weather come off the Qilian an hour before it reaches the door. Every drop of the year's rain runs to a cistern under the well court.

  • 180mm rain a year
  • 12m³ cistern
  • 64m² roof terrace
04

Flat roof living

Flat roofs carry life outdoors, taking in views and daylight in the Northwest tradition.

Apricots, August Summer sleeping Cistern 12 m³ Stair Terrace 64 m² Qilian
A ridge in silhouette as the sun sets
Pl. 16From the roof, 19:52
Passage VIII — Night DE
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08Night

At night, the walls give back the day.

When the desert cold arrives the earth releases what it stored. The courtyards fill with stars, and the house is finally what it always was: walls, a tree, and sky.

The moon setting over a dark mountain range
Pl. 17Moonset over the Qilian

Colophon

“Earth for the walls, timber for the gate, a tree in the court and sky on the roof.” This scroll presents a speculative dwelling for the Hexi Corridor, after the competition board Silk Road Courtyard.

Photographs by Unsplash contributors. Ink landscapes are public-domain paintings. Set in Gloock, Newsreader and Azeret Mono. All names and figures are illustrative.

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