© E-Jay

Mountain House in Chongqing / Lew Joeson

Architects: Lew Joeson
Location: Chongqing, China
Photography: E-Jay, Chong Wang

The house is rebuilt on a family’s old house site, on the front side of a quadrangle embosomed by mountains. The architect got the idea that the house should get close to nature and noticed some drama in humanity: men hope a cut above others, simultaneously intimacy with them.

At last, the design coordinates the huge outlook and the small courtyard, with a pent-roof from the yard side up to the front side; in front of the building, several plain stages at different heights adjust the landform, constructing territory like bounding walls, simultaneously staying a friendly gesture for neighbors;

an outdoor path connects the stages, being an open spatial sequence; the path connects the indoor space of every floor through the entrance guard,, making every level attaches to the earth, creating a close relationship between man and nature which have been never seen in a traditional residence.

Unattainable, as well as sending a man to a view who never seen, a mountain is of dual character. The architecture finally constructs an experience of climbing: an unattainable-winding path leads to quiet seclusion- opening up. Multivariate “mountain”, meets man’s complicated needs, and blends into the nature around him.