Qian Tong, located in the southwest of Ningbo, is an ancient town where small streams run through it, and houses of Ming and Qing Dynasty were well-reserved. In March 2015, a wooden house is to be rebuilt on the 7 meters X 7 meters’ site at the central corner of the main street. What comes to my mind at first is to install a young heart for the ancient town. How should wood be applied to let this little house stand among the other ancient ones looking naturally as grandfather and grandson, neither too old nor too incompatible, and to create a space where modern taste and lifestyle could be accommodated?

Qian Tong House is assembled, without any nail or glue, by Chinese traditional carpenters on site with 136 separate wood components prefabricated by 5-axis CNC machine. An evolved Chinese wood structure of mortise-tenon joints is practiced combining modern processing techniques with ancient oriental esthetics.

The beams and pillars of Qian Tong Wood Structure House form a self-balancing structure. It presents how force is transferred honestly with a unified expression of strength and beauty.

All the wood used in Qian Tong House is within 60 years’ old that can be achieved in a lifetime of a human being. In this way, the philosophy of sustainability is proposed: circular construction and in-place rebirth based on the life cycle of both human and trees.