Dali has been one of my favorite places since the 1990s
I bought the house at the end of 2016
It enjoys gorgeous views
You can see Erhai Lake on the third floor
And you can also see Mount Cang on the rooftop
I have been a designer for many years
And I think nothing can compare with nature, no matter it’s technique, language or material
Wind, cloud and sun
I turned it over in my mind
Trying to arrange and renovate the space
You walk down along a path before you enter into the house
Previously the staircase went straight up from the basement to the third floor
It was less interesting
So I built some stairs around the indoor garden
I have the habit of thinking
How does the sun change in the house in a day
During the renovation
I got up early to come here
To see if the sun could get in the room
And what the angle was
When there was the moon in the sky after I finished my dinner, I would come here again to feel the light
When the sun rises in the morning
The corner where the round table stands has the best light
I drink my first cup of tea or coffee there
As it approaches the noon
In the yard
The temperature rises as sun becomes stronger
I would move to the outside
It’s really comfortable to bath in the sun
In the afternoon
The balcony on the third floor is really attractive
You can see the sun shines on Mount Cang
It’s impossible to do interior design with only drawings
Habitually I find things on the site
For example, you could see the living room of the next-door house from the windows of some westward rooms
So I used glass bricks which lets light in but hides figures
Probably 70% of the items in the house were found by myself
They look old
But it seems they’re breathing as the sun moves
The cabinet has a round hole in the middle
I found it accidentally in a village in the South-eastern Asia
It looked like a Cubist work
But the owner said he made it by himself
I think he had an artist’s soul inside
And there’s this tea table which I found by the roadside
It’s purely a piece of wood without the carving
All the wooden cabinets were made on the site
I knew the carpenters for 27 years
I met them in the first project after I graduated from the college
I think they understand and deal with things in a pretty wise way
I like wood
It’s like human
We grow up and get old. You can see time in wood
I grew up in Chongqing
I was a worker for 7 years
I took the exam for twice before I got enrolled by Sichuan Fine Arts Institute
I knew little about deign then
I designed for free to get some projects
Then I was able to get a profit
I stopped all my work in 2007
And I started from scratch to do design only
Now I spend around 1/5 of my year in Dali
Doing nothing
My mobile seldom rings
The days seem lazy but I have more time to think
Slowly you would begin to feel people
Space serves people. It is true
He should feel happy, comfortable and free in the space
My relatives, friends and colleagues
They can live here
Then it’s a house for people to live
Not for people to see. I think it’s powerful
What really moves me is a simple language