Project Hutongs

The few days of simple photography and sketching were over when we got assigned our project. While I got a huge shot of anxiety hearing all the requirements for the project, I was also quite excited to get started. Since I had only completed my first year in my major, this project was an amazing opportunity to see a project design all the way through from site analysis to presentation. Our study space was on the fourth floor of the architecture building at NCUT and was pretty hot but I had already started getting used to the heat. The first stage of the project was pretty fun. The basis of our project was to find spaces that were otherwise hidden but accessible through markets or tight corridors, spaces that locals know about but tourists do not. With that we split up and ventured into every crevice we could find. We successfully found a few potential sites to use for our project, we just had to decide what sites would work best. To find out what locals really wanted and needed, we conducted several interviews that would help us develop our design ideas and considerations. The project itself consisted of creating maps, design concepts, design models, defining conditions, guidelines, and renderings of said designs. It was a two week process and was extremely rigorous. Luckily, I had a solid group where everyone contributed their fair share.