JINGDEZHEN HOUSE-IN-HOUSE PLUGINS / People's Architecture Office

Jingdezhen House-in-House Plugins

Jingdezhen, Jiangxi

2024

Jingdezhen is known as China’s Porcelain Capital, it has been producing ceramics for at least 1,000 years starting from the Han Dynasty up until the present.

The Jingdezhen Plugin House is a series of Plugins created for a historic greenware room, which is a ceramic greenware drying workshop, equivalent to today's raw material preparation and molding workshop. The building structure is a perforated wooden frame structure specially designed for the ancient ceramic greenware drying process. There are many wooden frames of different heights that can be used to place partitions for greenware drying.

The greenware room is located in the only part of the old town that has been preserved, though it lay vacant for a long period of time. In order to preserve the historic structure while also upgrading it for contemporary use, People’s Architecture Office utilized their proprietary Plugin House system to transform the empty spaces into a living and working studio for young artists. The irregular shape and structure of the frames for the drying partitions pose a challenge to any renovation, yet the flexible Plugin system can easily adapt to these variations, demonstrating the advantage of the system.

The Plugin units are freely placed within the wooden frame structure, creating a space within a space, providing a comfortable living environment that incorporates structure, insulation, wiring, plumbing, windows, doors, interior and exterior finishes into one molded part. While the remaining semi-outdoor space between the Plugins is transformed into a variety of working spaces. With the principle of not destroying the original structure, the heritage building has been revitalized and activated for contemporary use, becoming a flexible, future-proof and sustainable crafts center.

Jingdezhen House-in-House Plugins

Client:Jingdezhen Ceramic Culture Tourism Group

Location:Jingdezhen, Jiangxi

Principals:He Zhe, James Shen, Zang Feng

Project Team:Yuan Yingzi, Zhang Meng, Yang Qian, Yang Quanyue, Huang Liying, Zhang Mengyuan, Zhou Shimin, Han Xiao, Liu Yixin, Wang He, Wen Hao, Liu Yifeng

Photographer:People’s Architecture Office