Courtyard Rewritten —— Adaptive Reuse in Pingshi Historic District
This project is located in the Ping Shi Historic District in southern Nanjing, aiming to address the dual demands of heritage preservation and contemporary reuse through a strategy of ‘reimagining courtyards.’ The design draws on the axial and enclosing logic of traditional courtyard houses, reinterpreting the spatial rhythm of ‘gate—hall—garden—room’ into a modern public cultural space. We employ a three-pronged approach of ‘installation—insertion—intervention’: restoring and lightly installing well-preserved Qing Dynasty residential buildings; introducing steel structures as insertions in courtyards with collapsed roofs; and applying structural interventions and expansions to low-value 1980s dormitory buildings to create a composite function of library, apartments, and shared offices. In terms of materials, we continued the traditional Nanjing elements of blue bricks, grey tiles, and whitewashed walls, combining them with weather-resistant steel and black metal panels. This approach emphasises the continuity of historical texture while highlighting the clarity of modern construction. The newly constructed courtyard-style corridors and sunken plazas provide usable communal spaces for the community, while incorporating Kunqu opera performances and handicraft exhibitions. This transforms the ‘courtyard’ from merely a container of memory into a new type of public theatre that revitalises the neighbourhood.
