MAYLAND LAKE VILLA
Mayland Lake Villa is a 500 sm villa locates in Qingyuan City - a small town about 60 km north of Guangzhou City, or 180 km northeast of Hong Kong. According to the client, his property which is part of a larger residential development might very well be the last batch of free-standing single-family houses in mainland China as the state prefers apartments and condos development instead of the low density "American Dream" homes.
Our first task was to reconsider the poorly constructed existing stairways. We conceived this main connection from public areas (living and dining rooms) to private quarters (guest rooms and master bedroom) a sculptural feature, using wood slats to craft sinuous geometry defining the corner of the dining room as well as the bottom of the stairs.
The owner also asked for the conversion from the existing 4-bedroom house to 6-bedroom, with a casual reading room convertible to a make-shift guest suite on the second floor. This multi-purpose reading room engages with the sculptural stairs below, resulting in a slatted semi-open space overlooking the double-ceiling height living room below. A Murphy bed is concealed in the slatted wall, and within minutes mobile furniture could be re-arranged to convert to a guest room.
