Villa Souran / WHY Architects

Villa Souran was conceived as a response to a commission for designing a retreat on a plot located at the far end of a residential villa complex, adjacent to agricultural lands. The project site, with its distinctive shape, is accessed through a relatively narrow passage that opens up into a wide, expansive area. At the heart of this open space lay a large pool, formerly used for agricultural water storage. Rather than removing this prominent element, it was embraced as the focal and organizing centerpiece of the entire design.

In Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle (1958), architecture itself becomes a character: sliding doors, an automatic fountain, gates that emit mechanical sounds, devices that both enchant and frustrate the inhabitants. The comedy arises precisely from the fact that these seemingly trivial systems silently shape everyday life. More than six decades later, the observation seems prophetic. In contemporary buildings, countless systems work autonomously and discreetly, going unnoticed when they function well. Among them, automatic doors, traditionally seen as secondary elements, are emerging as part of a new "invisible infrastructure": connected, efficient, and intelligent systems that support comfort, sustainability, and operational resilience.

Fanshan Alunite Mine in Lujiang, Hefei is an industrial heritage site of profound historical significance. After market decline in the 1990s, the mine ceased operations in 2001. The end of its prosperity left behind not only dilapidated factories and the crystallization ponds but also a deteriorating ecological environment. The unique historical value and spatial potential of this once-powerful industrial core nearly faded into oblivion over time.

The client decided to build a new home for their family on a corner of the property where their parents' house stands. The site is a former private road, measuring 4 meters wide and 35 meters deep. To the north of the site is the client's parents' house, to the south lies a large vacant lot owned by the government, and to the east is a cliff with a 4-meter elevation difference.