At 14:00 pm on August 4, 2024, "Environment Architecture: CU Office exhibition of Tianqiao Renewal Projects opened at No. 33 Chuziying Hutong, Tianqiao, Beijing. A symposium with the same theme was held at 15:00 on the same day at No. 7 Huayan Road. This exhibition displays 9 practical cases of the organic renewal of hutong buildings in the northern bungalow area of Beijing Tianqiao Historical and Cultural District in the past 8 years by the CU Office team led by Che Fei and Zhang Xuefeng. The practice of the overpass by the CU Office team originated from the urban research initiated by Che Fei and Zhang Xuefeng many years ago. The background is the rapid urbanization development and social spatial transformation of Chinese cities in the past 40 years. Taking Tianqiao as an example, this exhibition is divided into 5 themes: (1) Regional context, (2) Organic renewal of courtyards, (3) Symbiosis of past and present, (4) Symbiosis of inside and outside, (5 ) renewal method.
CU Office first proposed the theoretical method of environment architecture in practice, treating the different scales of the city, architecture, interior and landscape of each specific Beijing Hutong courtyard as an overall system for renewal design. This has gradually become the methodology of CU Office.
The bungalow area in the northern part of the Tianqiao is located in the protect zone of Beijing's city central axis. It is also an important material relic and spatial carrier of the urban culture of the old Beijing Tianqiao. The nine different projects on display this time are all located in the hutongs of the Bungalow District in the north of Tianqiao, and are organic renovation designs for the large courtyards commonly found in Beijing's old city.
Among these nine projects, they can be divided into two types: "Hutong Museum" and "Symbiosis Apartment" based on the renewal of the entire courtyard with the "courtyard" as the unit and the partial renewal with the "room" as the unit. Among them, the "Hutong Museum" includes: No. 36 Chuziying Hutong; No. 7 Huayan Road; Nos. 86, 88 and 90 Zhao Zhuizi Hutong. "Symbiotic apartments" include: No. 108 Zhao Zhui Zi Hutong; No. 18 Zhao Zhui Zi Hutong; No. 19 and 21 Zhao Zhui Zi Hutong; No. 10 Jiuwan Hutong; No. 18 Yao'er Hutong; No. 3 Zhengyang Hutong.
