AD Future sits in Siwei, Shantou, inside a traditional Chaoshan dwelling reworked by AD Architecture and chief designer Xie Peihe. The project frames time as a visible thread. You feel it in the way the architecture holds fragments of the village’s past while opening to new forms of gathering. What began as the studio’s former office and Xie’s personal retreat now welcomes guests as a tea space, café, gallery, aesthetics salon, fashion runway, hotel, and photography venue, an unbounded setting that adapts to each program and moment.
MIXED USE
The house belongs to the Shuangbeijian typology that once anchored village life. Over the years, land redistribution and urban migration left many structures vacant and fading, while younger generations moved to the city. AD Architecture set a clear goal: restart village vitality by reviving a single house and letting it spark the next. The team preserves the original envelope, then reorganizes interior layout and openings to invite light, air, and contemporary use patterns. The approach treats renewal as a chain reaction, one precise intervention that encourages others to follow.
Inside, the designers clear cramped rooms and dark corridors, establish new sightlines, and tune window positions to draw daylight deep into the plan. They place bold red geometric volumes in the courtyard to set a contemporary cadence against masonry and timber. The inserts choreograph movement, create perches for conversation, and mark thresholds between tea, exhibition, and event modes. Wooden floors and traditional wall textures keep the building’s tactile memory present, while the reworked plan supports flexible hosting, from quiet reading and small tastings to runway shows and live sets.
Local cultural identity anchors the project through a series of collaborations. Contemporary artist Zheng Shaowen’s “Yingge Dance” series grounds the visual language, while Lin Xu of Matrix Electronic Band composes “Clash with Fate,” a track that threads Yingge’s heroic shouts into a kinetic beat. The Chaoyang Haixing Yingge Dance Troupe performs with YANA from Latvia, staging a charged encounter that frames AD Future as a place where different eras and geographies meet. Flight Film and photographer Ouyang Yun capture the performances with a cinematic pace, underlining the project’s intention to read like a scene unfolding through time.
Curation supports the architecture. Modern fabric sofas sit beside rattan chairs from the period of Chinese migration to Southeast Asia; British ceramic carts and Republican-era furniture punctuate corners with lived-in character. Paintings by young local artist Zhu Hui hold their own dialogue with Zheng Shaowen’s works, creating a register of images that ranges from folklore to contemporary portraiture. Nothing feels staged; the mix reads as a working collection that grows with each residency, shoot, or salon.
Xie describes AD Future as a place to feel sun, breeze, rain, and birdsong, a quiet counterpoint to urban pressure. That personal instinct now scales to a private, commercially operated venue that invites high-end visitors to slow down and reconnect with rural rhythms. Young guests find an entry point back to village life; local residents gain a platform for art, performance, and gatherings. The house operates as vessel and canvas at once: it holds tea in the morning, a runway in the afternoon, and a concert at night without losing focus.
AD Future reads as a clear proposal for countryside revitalization: keep what matters, edit what hinders, and script new social patterns inside a familiar frame. The project does not chase nostalgia or novelty for its own sake. It lets architecture host culture in motion, so the house can carry memory forward while staying open to whatever arrives next.
