Yizhan Design: Winner of World Design Awards 2025. Chinese-style courtyard houses and the post-90s generation, two seemingly unrelated terms, have constructed a dream house in an extraordinary way on one side of the Xixi Wetland in Hangzhou. The homeowners, Mr. And Mrs. Huai Shu, along with designer Xiao Yizhan, completed this meaningful and companion collection practice with this unique Chinese-style residence. And how to interpret the unique life aesthetics that fits the owner couple is the design thread running through the entire process. The design integrates the lifestyle of the residents into multi-dimensional sensory experiences, from materials to colors, from lighting to details. With understanding and companionship towards the owner, it uses a beautiful interpretation of their lifestyle to build a unique home ideal.

The homeowners, curators of a fashion boutique, scour the globe with a discerning eye for life-enriching pieces. Having traversed the world, they now seek a home that becomes a sanctuary for their cherished collections and pure personal passions. The design transcends mere function, weaving spatial poetry with curated treasures to craft an urban sanctuary where Eastern and Western aesthetics converse in harmonious equilibrium.

Rooted in the courtyard typology, this design merges the Chinese garden’s philosophy of “journey through space” with the Japanese garden’s essence of “contemplation in stillness”. Beyond stylistic labels, it cultivates an organic extension of the owners’ lifestyle – where wandering and contemplation coexist. Every corner becomes a living canvas for their curated artifacts: Japanese copper rain chains cascade alongside repurposed bamboo poles transformed into shishi-odoshi water features. These beloved objects stage the ever-changing seasons, framing moments to savor emerald spring dew, summer moss veils, and autumn’s crimson whispers within an urban oasis.

The scene design prioritizes the senses, using a large number of natural materials with rich textures to lay out the interior space, extending the natural temperature of the courtyard into the room through multiple sensory experiences. The interior and the garden are separated by only a sliding glass door, allowing for mutual access and complementing each other. The first floor space integrates functional areas such as the living room, dining room and kitchen. On one side, large Windows are used to maximize the introduction of natural light, allowing sunlight to seamlessly blend with the greenery outside.

Project Details:-
Firm
Yizhan Design

Designer
Yizhan Xiao

Project Name
Xixi Yunlu Private Villa

Project Category
Interior Design – Private House (Built)

Team
Pengfei, Mao Jianxiong, Chen Liya, Liu Chao, Zhang Laijian, Zhang Xin, Song Caimeng

Project Location
Hangzhou City

Country
China

Photography ©Credit
©Pan Jie, Zhang Xi

Yizhan Design is located in Hangzhou. Its projects include residential, commercial and dining Spaces. The design concept centers on people’s sensory needs, aiming to awaken the interactive experience between people and space through materials, colors, lighting, sound and smell. Years of design practice have deeply studied and explored the uniqueness of the site, transformed it into the uniqueness of the space, and created new spatial relationships with a concise and de-stylized approach.