ZAO/standardarchitecture 标准营造
No.2 Huangsi Street Dongcheng District Beijing China Postcode: 100011
Tel: 86-10-62634351
publication inquiry: me@z-a-o.cn
project inquiry: p@z-a-o.cn
job application: hr@z-a-o.cn

We are hiring: 
Experienced Furniture and Product Designer or Interior Designer； 
Project Manager； 
Associate Partner / General Manager

Xizhi Art village is a regeneration project aiming to rejuvenate the old derelict village in decay, by establishing an art village that combines art and design with the local natural and cultural environment. Xizhi village is located in Beijing municipality, Miyun district, northeast of Beijing, originating from the Ming dynasty.

As a donation from ZAO/standardarchitecture to the underdeveloped area in Guangxi autonomous region of China, the project of the new Guangxi Longji Primary School is conceived as a “house” designed for students and teachers, where a series of intimate spaces open to a breathtaking landscape of terraced rice fields.

Ce projet est une experimentation visant à explorer les possibilités de créer des logements sociaux de petite taille dans les limites des espaces disponibles. Ce projet de 30㎡ , appelé micro-hutong, offre une alternative, à la préservation et à la valorisation des maisons à cours traditionnelles, siheyuan, dont le problème le plus prégnant est le depart de ses occupants à la recherché de logements aux standards du «confort moderne ».

The new studio of ZAO/standardarchitecture is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful architecture offices in Beijing. It is located in the north of the city on the site of a former warehouse, of which only the plastered, closed street facade remains. For the new walls around the courtyard the architects decided to use fired clay bricks typical for northern China. These bricks exhibit slightly varied gray tones, which create a shimmering effect, and quickly develop a sensually rough surface when exposed to the weather.

Zhang Ke began his architectural practice in Tibet：the abstract simplicity and bright colors of Tibetan architecture have had a profound impact on his architectural approach. His series of projects in Tibet adopts contemporary local masonry and a geometric-inspired appearance to make the buildings seem like land art, deeply embedded in Tibet's unique landscape.

"Bauhaus" was never a word with special meaning for me, until I went to study at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard in 1996. The school was considered to be the American reincarnation of the Bauhaus, because Walter Gropius himself taught therefrom 1938to 1952. It was at GSD that I encountered the Bauhaus legacy and began thinking about Gropius and Mies van der Rohe.

3000年もの歴史をもつ中国の首都、北京。市の中心部の故宮(紫禁城)、天安門広場の周辺には「胡同(フ-トン)」とよばれる細い路地と伝統的な様式の住宅がいまも残っている。

The historical building culture still shapes China's popular national identity today. There is no brochure or advertising material without curved roofs or pagodas. An additional narrative has been added in recent years: the generic skyscraper city, which provides a background for the curved roofs and historical variety of forms without any local reference. However, the city of the people has lost its simple identity-creating frame of reference from the living environment. Not only functionally one-dimensional city quarters, but also aesthetically impoverished concepts complicate identification and thus the sense of responsibility for the neighbourhood. But what does a contemporary environment look like that is accepted and cared for by the population?

The museum for the work of the painter Xiao Feng is located a few kilometres to the south of the famous West Lake, at the foot of Daci Mountain in Hang­zhou. The plan of the building is based on the idea of a central garden, with a strong sense of inwardness reflecting a character that is key to traditional Chinese intellectual gardens. The layout naturally follows the site boundary and forms a linear circulation route through the exhibition spaces. Alongside the winding gallery spaces on the outside edge, a series of projecting rec­tangular rooms face inwards to provide views of the garden and, in some cases, also views towards the mountains at the back. The roof of the building was designed to generate a sense of layering and movement in the land­scape. The organic volume rises gradually at the front to form an entryway to the garden, where the main entrance of the building is hidden behind trees and bamboo groves. Thus the museum becomes a part of the landscape and enhances the feeling of being in nature.

Walking down a Beijing hutong (‘narrow street’) can feel like you’ve stumbled into a big, slightly chaotic, family home. There are always people hanging around, street furniture arranged for conversations, washing hanging out to dry, bikes scattered about.

ZHANG KE & THE ALVAR AALTO MEDAL exhibition at Maison Louis Carré, France
On the occasion of the exhibition Alvar Aalto, architecte et designer at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris (9 March-1 July 2018), Maison Louis Carré organizes an exhibition focusing on the Alvar Aalto Medal and its newest laureate, the Chinese architect Zhang Ke.

Located in Linzhi county, Tibet, where Niyang River and Yaluzangbu River merge, the Niang'ou Terminal sits above a gently sloped bay, with old willows bowing over sand deltas. The bay then gradually turns into a steeper hill. Behind, layers of soft, nameless mountains.

This project further explores a sustainable renewal strategy for the urban fabric in the Baitasi historical area in an extremely subtle way. It aims to transform a 150 sqm courtyard in a shared space for two households with the insertion of a prefabricated service core in the 80 sqm main apartment and an 8 sqm “Mini House” underneath the pitched roof.

Ethics or Aesthetics? 
The Brutalism and Rustic Manners in ZHANG Ke’s Works
Eduard KOEGEL, Translated by SU Hang, Proofread by ZHENG Chao and ZHANG Yifan
ABSTRACT By studying the two design approaches recurred in Zhang Ke’s works, the article considers the dynamics of his architectural expression. In the micro courtyards in Beijing, the architect seeks to unearth the history of the houses while provoking visitors’ speculation. Using found conditions of the site as the context, with a subtle reference to Brutalist material culture, the architect stages a direct conversation between the old and the new, to generate a distinct, sensual and perceptual experience. When surrounded by rural landscape in Tibet, Zhang Ke borrows the rustic manner of local material culture and applies it in his design, again, implicated with a touch of Brutalist sensitivity. With such approach, he aims to revitalize traditional craftsmanship and engage it in a new way, so as to sustain the originality of local practice while finding new application for traditional skills and techniques. In these projects, Zhang Ke’s idea of urban and rural context denotes a contemporary debate of identity. This conversation, creating an equal exchange between craftsmen and the architect, is a productive social encounter that has to transcend the wide gap of economic development between the two regions.

Recent Projects by ZAO/standardarchitecture 
ZHANG Ke, ZHANG Yifan

Decoding” ZHANG Ke 
Seventeen Years Practice of ZAO/standardarchitecture
ZHI Wenjun, HE Run, DAI Chun    
ABSTRACT Taking Chinese contemporary architect Zhang Ke as a sample, in terms of "data analysis", the article tries to unscramble Zhang Ke and his ZAO/standardarchitecture. By applying tools of computer programming and information visualization, the analysis goes beyond the perceptual understanding of architects, which is always based on the works they design or the articles they write. By means of data and text mining, more rational and scientific, the article summarizes the creative ideas of Zhang Ke. It shows projects, publications, exhibitions, speeches and awards of Zhang Ke/ZAO, revealing the impacting factors behind his success at the same time.

Im Oktober 2016 organisierte der Architektur-Lehrstuhl von Prof. Mike Guyer, Mitinhaber des bekannten Architekturbüros Gigon/Guyer in Zürich, eine Seminarreise ¢ür Architekturstudenten der ETH nach China. Die Teilnehmer konnten sich glücklich schätzen, mit der ETH-Architektin Mulan Sun Buschor eine erfahrene und kompetente Reiseleiterin mit gleichem Berufshintergrund zu bekommen. Mit ihrer einhergehenden Kenntnis der aktuellen chinesischen Architekturszene stellte sie ein äusserst spannendes Programm zusammen, das die hohen Erwartungen der angehenden Architekten voll und ganz zu er¢üllen vermochte. Ich erhielt die einmalige Chance, die Gruppe zu begleiten und mir eröfnete sich in einigen der gezeigten Architekturlösungen eine un erwartet neue Sicht au das Thema Denkmalpflege und Transformation in diesem Lande, die ich ohne diese Werkstattbesuche wohl nie so hätte gewinnen können.Im Oktober 2016 organisierte der Architektur-Lehrstuhl von Prof. Mike Guyer, Mitinhaber des bekannten Architekturbüros Gigon/Guyer in Zürich, eine Seminarreise ¢ür Architekturstudenten der ETH nach China. Die Teilnehmer konnten sich glücklich schätzen, mit der ETH-Architektin Mulan Sun Buschor eine erfahrene und kompetente Reiseleiterin mit gleichem Berufshintergrund zu bekommen. Mit ihrer einhergehenden Kenntnis der aktuellen chinesischen Architekturszene stellte sie ein äusserst spannendes Programm zusammen, das die hohen Erwartungen der angehenden Architekten voll und ganz zu er¢üllen vermochte. Ich erhielt die einmalige Chance, die Gruppe zu begleiten und mir eröfnete sich in einigen der gezeigten Architekturlösungen eine un erwartet neue Sicht au das Thema Denkmalpflege und Transformation in diesem Lande, die ich ohne diese Werkstattbesuche wohl nie so hätte gewinnen können.

The office building is based on the space-forming concept of cellular structures. Three-dimensional cells fill the given outlines of the complete building volumetric, some even as voids. This space-generating concept projects itself onto the floor plans and the building’s envelope, with its tilted glass panes. Also, in the courtyard the organic grid system generates a system of cellular pockets of indoor and outdoor spaces. 

The Bielefelder Kunstverein holds a solo exhibition of ZAO/standardarchitecture from February 11 to April 17, 2017.

Micro-Hutong is an experiment carried out by studio Standardarchitecture in the district of Dashilar in Beijing. A building imagined in 2012 and translated from wood to reinforced concrete in 2016. Through a double process of partial demolition and remodellation, the result of the intervention is a small lot which favours the spatial and functional link to the neighbourhood and a sense of cosy and intimate dwelling.

There is a growing trend in the Chinese capital to try to bring back to life historic districts with their typical, low-rise houses designed around a courtyard. Here are two of the most interesting projects, by Zhang Ke

Hutong reform in the past and present

The hutongs of Beijing are fast disappearing. The residential compounds, with their layering of spaces and multiple courtyards, are often viewed as messy and insalubrious – almost as slums. If they find a place in the modern city, it is often in sanitised form, as a tourist attraction, filled with boutiques. The attempt to find a new use for this traditional building form – one that would benefit the local community – motivated this proposal for a space that would serve both the pupils from the nearby primary school and the hutong's remaining, mostly elderly, residents. Besides a children's library and exhibition space, the centre hosts a local handicrafts studio and classes in painting and dance.

Establecido en 1977 y otorgado por el Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), que dirige el español Luis Monreal, el Premio Aga Khan de Arquitectura se ha ido consolidando a lo largo de los años hasta convertirse en una referencia no sólo de las arquitecturas del mundo islámico, sino también de los edificios de calidad realizados con recursos locales y atentos al contexto. Dirigido por Farrokh Derakhshani, el premio trienal, dotado con un millón de dólares, y cuyo jurado presidió en esta edición Luis Fernández-Galiano, ha recaído en seis obras de diferente condición y ubicaciones muy distintas, cuya característica común es el modo en que contribuyen a mejorar su entorno: la mezquita Bait Ur Rouf en Daca (Bangladés), de Marina Tabassum; el centro comunitario en Gaibandha, también en Bangladés, de URBANA / Kashed Mahboob Chowdhury (imagen superior); la biblioteca y el centro de arte infantil en un hutong pequinés, de ZAO/ standardarchitecture y Zhang Ke (véase Arquitectura Viva 180); el puente peatonal Tabiat en Teherán (Irán), de Diba Tensile Architecture / Leila Araghian y Alireza Behzadi; el Instituto Issam Fares en Beirut (Líbano), de Zaha Hadid Architects; y, flnalmente, el Parque Superkilen en Copenhague (Dinamarca) de BIG / Bjarke Ingels Group. Topotek 1 y Superflex (véase AV Monografjas 162), un singular proyecto que supone un elogio del pluralismo y de la tolerancia en el contexto de una Europa acosada de nuevo por el fantasma del nacionalismo y la xenofobia.

Zhang Ke, ZAO / standardarchitecture, with the Micro Yuan’er Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing, received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

The goal of Micro Hutong, a 30 sqm hostel, is to search for possibilities of creating ultra-small scale social housing within the limitations of super-tight traditional hutong spaces of Beijing.

Lightness is upheld as an overall value - lightness of space, lightness of structure and lightness of work – for people who work and live in and around the building.

Many young Chinese believe that the path to greatness is equivalent to the path to riches. Beijing architect Zhang Ke feels exactly the opposite. After receiving his bachelor and master degrees from Tsinghua University, he was the first Chinese national to secure a place at Harvard University’s prestigious Graduate School of Design. After graduation, he worked for William Rawn Associates in Boston briefly before spending three years at various architectural firms in Manhattan. He quickly learned that the corporate lifestyle was not for him.

When the struggle of Hutong redevelopment in Beijing has been brought to the front of world’s architecture by Zhang Ke, something big for the contemporary Chinese architecture is probably under preparation.

In this shift and even search for diversity among dwelling unit types and aggregations of unit types, the small or so-called ‘micro-unit’ has been pursued in a number of contexts, both in China and abroad. In fact, it seems to harken back to the 1930s and the search among those in CIAM for the Existenzminimum or ‘minimum dwelling’ , pegged at a little more than 14 square meters in area.

Opening at the end of May 2016, the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale has drawn the world’s attention to its fascinating venues, again. As one of the three Chinese participants in the central exhibition, “Reporting from the Front,” Zhang Ke brings his vision of the frontline of Chinese architecture to global visitors.

The hostel is situated along the slope of the Yarlung Tsangpo River near Pai Town, the small locality that marks the entrance to the Grand Canyon. The site is facing the river to the north, the 7,782 m-high peak of Namcha Barwa to the east, the 7,294 m Gyala Peri Peak to the northeast, and Mount Duoxiongla to the south. To design a hostel with one hundred rooms in such an environment posed a great challenge for the architects. Inspired by the “steps” strategy often seen in local villages when built on slopes, they decided to design a series of stepped, single-storey, linear buildings, each with unimpeded views of the river and mountains to the north and east. On four steps, each set back and grouped in a cresent-shaped form, the building is integrated like a horizontal cut in the foot of the mountain. With roofs covered by earth, shrubs and rocks, the building gently embeds itself into the sloped landscape. Viewed from a distance, the hostel disappears like a few thin leaves floating along the river.

Cha’er hutong is a quiet spot among the busy Dashilar area, situated one kilometer from the Forbidden City in the city centre of Beijing. The #8 Cha’er Hutong courtyard is a typical “Da-Za-Yuan”—big messy courtyard—once occupied by over a dozen families. Over the past fifty years, each family built a small add-on kitchen in the courtyard. These add-on structures are usually considered as urban scrap and all of them have been wiped out with the renovation practices during the past years.

ZAO/standardarchitecture + Embaixada
Abstract: This essay discusses the relationship between architecture and landscape in Niang’ou Boat Terminal in Tibet, a project designed by ZAO/standardarchitecture + Embaixada. Through an analysis of building concept, circulation, as well as construction materials, the essay explores the contemporaneity and spirituality of architecture in a strong regional background.