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.