In common with the inward-looking character of courtyard houses in the village, the new house has an introvert character. Lime mixed with pieces of straw—a very common form of rendering for external walls in Dali region—also helps relate the new house to its context.
Inside, the house is divided into the private quarters of the resident couple to the north, and a series of living areas and accommodation for a guest and a live-in cleaner/cook to the south. Nine courtyards of varying sizes reduce the scale of the traditional courtyard house and to match courtyards with various rooms. The circulation through the main parts of the house develops as an alternation between spatial compression and spatial dilation.
A storage room obscures the size of the main living area, with views out to the eastern fields as well as to the central pond and, above the plants and rocks of the western passage, to the traditional tiled roof of the neighboring courtyard house to the west.
▽ 中庭 (左侧是起居室，正前方是带水池的庭院，庭院尽头是餐厅，右侧是开了洞口的廊道), courtyard, with water feature in the center, living room to the left, dinning room in the front and hallway with an opening to the right
