Apartments of Hao

The design of this apartment building is a combination of classical European style and residents’ self-built balconies in Beijing.
The style of classical architecture often symbolizes Hao 豪 in Chinese (luxury), while the self-built balconies show Zi Hao 自豪 (pride) of their owners as they might be the only legal constructions on the land of Chinese city that are built freely by its residents. The original use of materials, structures, and forms exemplifies their inexhaustible creativity with limited conditions. With those balconies, the plain elevation of the apartment building formed by the vertical repetition of standard floor is filled with rich flavors of life.
Apartments of Hao has nothing to do with Modernism architecture. However, if it is said that modernity is the awakening of individual consciousness, this building could also be an interpretation on modernity. Thus, it is an architecture of modernity.