The Boundless Community of Boundless Life © Zheng Qingling
In the autumn of 2012, a group of artist friends invited us to visit the Purple Mud Hall Factory located by the Shawan Waterway, with the intention of transforming the site into an artistic and creative hub. This expansive industrial area, originally constructed in the 1950s and once inspected by Deng Xiaoping, has become overgrown and its industrial beauty is fading. As industrial civilization yields to the rise of the internet age, we asked ourselves: what does the future hold? Inspired by this question, we proposed a planning concept titled “Industrial Landscape.”
△ Zini Sugar Factory
By autumn 2015, a founder of an internet community co-working brand visited the park with us. Captivated by the space, she immediately rented a 134-square-meter old electric house near the hill. Her vision was to create a Co-living Space that could be booked online from Monday to Friday and serve as a family retreat on weekends. We introduced the concept of Co-living Space, a multifunctional area for work, meetings, exhibitions, Airbnb stays, cooking, and social gatherings.
The design was completed, featuring an open kitchen and a large communal table as the central elements. A treehouse suspended overhead doubles as a tatami room and a mini cinema. The specially designed bed can fold up to reveal a display board, while the roof can be transformed into a theater. This space, embodying the spirit of internet sharing, was given the traditional name “Zini Mountain House.” Sharing is at the heart of the space’s philosophy, representing an enduring aspiration.
△ Original state of mountain house © Title Building
Multiple uses of the long table © Title Building
△ Bed board converted into a drawing board © Title Building
△ Roof transforms into a theater © Title Building
However, the initial spark faded with challenges from the internet age. Fortunately, we soon found another homeowner and rented a larger fiberboard workshop. This allowed us to expand the Co-living Space into a Boundless Community, providing a new lifestyle and working environment for creative individuals shaped by internet culture.
Indoor fiberboard workshop © Title Building
Before and after renovation of the fiberboard workshop © Zheng Qingling
After renovation of the fiberboard workshop © Zheng Qingling
The internet has given rise to a generation of “slash youth” — individuals who may be dads in the morning, online writers or artists in the afternoon, and food bloggers or salon hosts by night. Their boundaryless lifestyle blends work, living, leisure, and entertainment seamlessly. Traditional architecture, which is rigid and compartmentalized, does not reflect this fluidity.
Our design of “Boundless Space” breaks all conventional boundaries. Here, art exhibitions can take place in the living room, work can happen in the garden, meetings can be held in the bathroom. The living room doubles as a live streaming studio, and the study transforms into an Airbnb on weekends. The living and dining rooms of each independent house open onto a shared “street,” creating a larger communal area. On weekends, this space becomes a vibrant market: a dad hosts an art exhibition here, while an internet celebrity runs a baking workshop there.
Creativity thrives through cross-disciplinary restructuring and redefinition. By breaking traditional boundaries, the community becomes a limitless environment that immerses users in imaginative spatial experiences, fostering innovation and creativity.
△ Creating the facade of neighborhood relationships © Title Building
△ Thickened facade designed to enhance communication © Zheng Qingling
The alleyway inside the building © Zheng Qingling
△ Handshake Building © Zheng Qingling
Click on the video to learn more
Within a two-story factory space with a height of 6.9 meters, seven houses with distinct layouts were constructed. Some feature courtyards and semi-outdoor bathrooms inspired by traditional Guangdong residential designs. Others use gently sloping, semi-enclosed staircases connecting floors, surrounded by willows in shadow and blooming flowers in sunlight. Certain doors and windows have movable frames that not only change the framed view but also alter the usable space. Some bathrooms bask in the sunset beneath flowering trees.
Seven houses with varying sizes and heights © Title Building
The equipment lift shaft transformed into a home courtyard © Zheng Qingling
Home with trees and a hillside © Zheng Qingling
On one side is a salon living room, while on the other is an exhibition space overlooking the interior alleyway © Zheng Qingling
Doors and windows with moving frames © Title Building
Bathing in the sunset beneath the flower tree © Zheng Qingling
Many visitors are puzzled by the exterior facade, asking, “What is this house used for?” Our ongoing vision has been how to build a bathroom in the garden, a kitchen with distant mountain views, and a reading nook under a skylight that frames the sky. By realizing these desires in each house, the facade resembles an “illegal building.” We aimed not for mere surface aesthetics, but for thickening the facade to create usable space.
Rain falling on banana trees in the bathroom © Title Building
△ Renovation of the original equipment port in the Wangtian bathroom © Zheng Qingling
△ Space creation process © Title Building
Vertical Community © Zheng Qingling
△ Thickened facade © Title Building
△ Main entrance © Title Building
△ Tower second floor plan
△ Second floor mezzanine plan of the tower
△ Third floor plan
△ Three-story mezzanine and attic plan
Though the houses were built, the project lacked a proper entrance. Fortunately, an old wall stood in front of the building. We thickened and hollowed it out to redefine its purpose. This boundary wall, worn by human activity and expanded into several open-air exhibition spaces, became the gateway to the Boundless Community—a perfect embodiment of the concept of “boundlessness.”
Before and after renovation of the fence © Zheng Qingling
Before and after renovation of the fence © Zheng Qingling
△ Boundless Community entrance © Zheng Qingling
The final owner decided not to lease the building to dozens of “slash youths,” but instead to allow more people to experience the “slash youth” lifestyle for a day and engage in creative brainstorming. Collaborating with the space, we created numerous original artworks for the Boundless Community and launched various participatory activities, continuously redefining the space and encouraging users to explore new possibilities.
△ Plate machine transformed into art © Title Building
△ Machine converted into a bar © Title Building
△ Original artwork: Soundwave © Title Building
△ Original artwork: In Art We Trust © Title Building
△ Original artwork: WOO © Title Building
The reflection of “Attention to oncoming vehicles” on the fence forms a thickened wall space © Title Building
△ Art creation © Title Building
A house is a community, an art museum, and a theater all in one.
△ Community Theater and Art Museum © Title Building
Boundless Community © Title Building
Design Drawings
△ General layout plan
△ Section 1-1
△ Section 2-2
△ Section diagram
△ Wall sample
△ East facade
△ South facade
Project Information
Owner: Guangzhou Huibin Property Management Co., Ltd
Construction Status: Completed
Design Period: January 2016 – January 2018
Construction Period: October 2016 – September 2018
Building Area: 5,231 square meters
Project Type: Renovation
Location: D1D2, Zinitang Creative Park, Panyu District, Guangzhou City
Design Firm: Fen Architecture
Interior, Landscape, and Art Design: Front Architecture
Office Website: www.feiarttecture.com
Lead Architect: Mi Xiao
Design Team: Yue Liang, Diao Jiajun, Cao Jintian, Xu Siqi, Huang Yucheng, Bi Xiaoxuan, Cheng Jiancheng, Yang Guoan
Construction Contractor: Beijing Century Hanbang Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd
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