The Inner Garden | OUTIN. DESIGN

Beneath the sky-reaching, canopy-like garden lies a world brimming with nature, emotion, and memory—a lived-in realm pulsing with life.

Taking the garden as its source of inspiration, two slender spiral staircases as its threads,
and the differing perspectives created by the "Winding Corridor" and framed-view aesthetics as its response to Jiangnan memories, the private residence "The Inner Garden" in Southern China, constructs its spatial logic from simple points, lines, and planes.

It strings together subtle threads of inspiration, employing a refined design language
to return space to life itself.

From the elegant imagery of "clouds hidden among pines" in classical poetry to today's "20-minute park effect," city dwellers, bound by urban confines, have never ceased yearning for the countryside. In the new home of a couple based in southern city of China , a small square garden atop the city serves as the starting point and core of the design, realizing their vision of a life "born of the wild, serene within walls." Two gracefully branching Japanese maples stand beneath the open sky, their roots nestled in earth covered with freely growing ferns and wild stones. Below, the river winding through the city acts as a "vein," connecting the greenery of urban parks. "It reminds me of walking along the stream in the countryside as a child," says the wife. Inside and outside the home, water and trees engage in a dialogue across space; this intertextuality of time and place gives tangible meaning to "seclusion within the city."

In this home designed by the SìBān team, they chose to strip away all conceptions and traces of creation revolving around "form," "style," or "technique." They let the design respond to the soul of the home in a purer way, returning to life itself.

Different forms of 'skylights' on the second floor introduce natural light, dispelling any potential sense of oppression from the ceiling height.

The path through "The Introvert's Garden" is a process of gradually approaching the soul of the space.

Starting from the entrance, a screen-foyer cabinet designed by JEDI Studio creates a narrow corridor leading visitors towards the light. A metal column at the corridor's end subtly directs flow, opening up to the bright, open-plan living, dining, and kitchen area, or towards the more private resting areas upstairs. The transitional "vestibule" acts like a pause before a long sentence begins—a space defined by objects, images, and plants, serving as a connector and responding to the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of "Ma" (interval).

The "heart" of the space is the open-air garden on the second floor, accessed by a light, delicate spiral staircase. "All considerations started from the garden and the views," as the wife explains，"To have a garden, and then wrap life around it" was their initial vision for an ideal home. They wanted a place where they could settle in any corner, for solitude, tea, or entertaining friends—a place of freedom.

Driven by this intention, the original top-floor structure—with five bedrooms and a terrace garden—was completely reimagined , they built around the central garden, adding functional areas including the master bedroom, guest room, and tea room, using two staircases to reorganize the circulation. The original first floor was opened up, with connected living, dining, and kitchen areas creating a transparent and expansive atmosphere. The garden, as the spiritual core, contains plants, light, memories, and emotions within its compact space, achieving an intrinsic connection with all other functional areas.

The living room maximizes natural light through south-facing floor-to-ceiling windows. For most of the day, no artificial light is needed, as the shifting play of light and shadow throughout the hours outlines the space's subtle moods. "Natural shadows and brightness give the space a genuine sense of lived-in life; that's the sensory state we wanted," says the husband. The furnishings on the first floor also use simple, restrained light-toned pieces to lay the foundation for daily life.

The main area features a whitevitsoe 606shelving system and an EDRA fabric sofa surrounding a central VITRA black coffee table. A Tacchini Elephant leather sofa is paired with a cyan Bramante sideboard—designed by Japanese architect Kazuhide Takahama for Cassina—breaking the monotony of the base palette and creating a dialogue, through a contemporary Eastern language, with the owners' collected artifacts: a clay Qilin figurine from a Quanzhou intangible cultural heritage artisan, a Piyao bought in their early startup days, a tea bowl found during a trip to Japan, a bamboo basket passed down from the family... These colliding Eastern elements, old and new, along with abundant linen and fabric materials, create a relaxed and intriguingly casual atmosphere.

On days spent entirely at home, this is also where the wife spends most of her time. "Sometimes I go for a run in the park on weekends, but after returning, I love lounging on the sofa, interspersed with moving around the kitchen island for meals." The couple doesn't strictly separate work and life by physical space or time. The open Western-style kitchen island, connecting the living room and dining table, serves multiple functions—from washing and cooking to preparing tea and wine—while also eliminating physical barriers to communication.

Next to the storage space by the island, a concealed entrance leads to the other spiral staircase and the small guest room it connects to. The staircase design follows the guidance of light, striving to get as close to natural elements as possible. A circular skylight also alleviates any potential oppressiveness in the small space, ensuring both privacy and ample daylight.

Between the living room, the vestibule, and the kitchen-dining area, doorways, ceiling lines, and windows large and small serve as mediums. Enhanced by varying spatial depths, they generate the layered aesthetic imagery of an Eastern garden and the experience of a meandering "wandering corridor."

Ascending the spiral staircase from the vestibule, the sensation of light intensifies. Standing in the leisure area directly above the vestibule, one can simultaneously feel the natural light cascading down from the elongated skylight, the vibrant greenery projected from the garden, and the serene tableau framed by the dark red marble door frame of the master bedroom. The techniques of "framing the view" and "borrowing the scenery" from Eastern gardens are subtly evident throughout this home, yet without literal or symbolic appropriation.

"It stems more from the local culture, natural landscapes, way of life, and the resulting visual and spiritual values of Eastern people," as the husband describes. In his childhood memories of Zhejiang villages, rammed-earth houses with tiled eaves were common. Limited by load-bearing constraints, only a few small, square windows could be opened, framing the scenery outside. The clear, picturesque beauty of Jiangnan's lush bamboo groves was thus captured deep in his memory, later flowing quietly into the shaping of their work.

The master bedroom, guest room, and two bathrooms all enjoy ample natural light and city views from different orientations, while also sharing a view of the central garden across the "wandering corridor." "We pay particular attention to the composition of visual scenes, the changing landscapes while moving through the space, and how to find the commonality between fixed points and the environment," says the husband. In their understanding, this "corridor" connecting inside and out is more of a penetrating visual experience, infinitely narrowing the distance between people and nature.

"The biggest change since moving in is that I actually have weekends now." As the wife remarks, space and matter imperceptibly shape human behavior, thereby influencing the lifestyle of the dwellers. Sometimes, waking from a late nap on weekends, she sees the warm yellow light from the campanula-like bionic wall lamps in the garden through the half-open French windows, casting elongated shadows of the trees. It recalls evenings from her childhood, walking past sporadic street lamps along paths in Songyang, with the faint buzz of insects passing by her ears. Home is a vessel for time. Fragments of life collected from different times and spaces are scattered throughout this garden home above the city, connecting the couple's past life memories while quietly sketching the contours of different life stages in the daily rhythm of meals and rest.

Lead Architects: OUTIN DESIGN GROUP .SìBān Studio

Photography: ZHU Di