Yuyao Self-built Villa

This project integrates indoor spaces with the surrounding natural environment, creating a relaxed and comfortable home that harmonizes nature and human habitation. The owners—a young couple about to marry—chose to build a three-story villa in the groom’s rural hometown, surrounded by tree-shaded paths and vast rice fields. The bride, a professional based in Shanghai, plans to relocate here permanently, seeking a lifestyle closer to nature.
The design is shaped by the couple’s preferences and the property’s original structure. The bride admires the wild luxury wabi-sabi aesthetic found in boutique hotels but wanted a warmer, more domestic feel, paired with the rustic texture of vintage wooden furniture. The existing layout offered generous proportions and high ceilings, allowing the hardscape design to remain restrained. A semi-partitioned layout enhances spatial fluidity, while axial symmetry at the entry corridor and second-floor stair hall creates a sense of ceremony. Walls and floors feature textured limestone and artistic plaster finishes, with a limited material palette to cultivate purity and calm.
Furnishings integrate vintage wooden pieces with contemporary art furniture, balancing artistry with practicality. The result is an atmosphere that is rich in character yet functional, blending raw authenticity with modern comfort. Budget constraints encouraged simplicity in decoration, aligning naturally with the minimalist yet warm style.
Originally, numerous beams and columns divided the interior into small compartments. Removing most non-load-bearing walls opened the space, while symmetrical arrangements helped visually integrate the remaining columns, especially in transitional halls. These halls, now highly ceremonial spaces on each floor, give the home a grand, gallery-like quality uncommon in self-built houses.
The home’s connection to its rural setting is central to its appeal. From the second-floor terrace and the master bedroom’s floor-to-ceiling windows, one can enjoy uninterrupted views of rippling wheat fields, reinforcing the dialogue between architecture and nature.
The bride’s love for craftsmanship is reflected in the décor, which features aged furniture and her own handmade ceramic vases and objects, fired in Jingdezhen. Together, these elements create a home that is artistically rich, deeply personal, and in harmony with its pastoral surroundings.