Dwellings | Nanhai, Foshan: A Courtyard Within

Put a courtyard inside a large flat, and wherever you walk, your eye can come to rest on a stone, a few stems of bamboo, a patch of light. A courtyard is for looking at; a chair is for sitting in. In a home, looking and sitting have to find each other.

This is a large single-floor flat at Vanke Jinyu Huafu in Nanhai, Foshan: 350 square metres, completed in March 2024. It was designed by 301 Design, who called it "A Courtyard Within". Several pieces in the home come from Dak Haan.

According to 301 Design, the owner works in hotel management and has lived abroad; having seen a great many homes, they wanted one unlike anyone else's. The design team approached it as a second residence: not only comfortable, but able to change and to last for many years.

Their method was to "borrow the frame to take in the view": rethinking how inside and outside relate, and making a courtyard scene within the home from light, stone, wood and bamboo. Walls and ceilings were kept to timber and white, with touches of dark to bring out the warmth of the wood, and lines and volumes pared back as far as possible.

In a home this restrained, the furniture has few colours: off-white, timber and black, almost nothing else. The black pieces become the strokes that hold the room in place.

Set at an angle before the TV wall is a black Half-Hundred% Lounge Chair.

Half-Hundred% is a 2021 design by Zhou Anbin. In those years of energy shortages and the pandemic, factories ran on rationed power, shipping stalled, and half-finished furniture piled up in the corners of the workshops. Visiting factories, we began to ask ourselves: could 50% of the usual state and craft deliver 100% of the experience of use, and of beauty? The Half-Hundred% collection looks for the relationship between that 50% and 100%. Boards cross to form the base, woven straps make the seat and back, and you can see exactly how it is put together.

In the product photographs on our website, Half-Hundred% is green, or blue; here it is entirely black. Set between pale timber floors and an off-white sofa, it is like a stone in the courtyard: saying nothing, yet seen by everyone.

At the far end of the living room, near the window, stands a black Xiaoyuan Lounge Chair.

Xiaoyuan is a 2020 design by Zhou Anbin, named for Xiaoyuan Xincun, the neighbourhood where its designer lived. The old furniture of its lanes, which kept people company over meals and tea, is gathered into contemporary proportions. The side panels run from the arms all the way to the floor, holding you steadily in between; sit down, and you face the green outside and the courtyard within.

At the dark long table is a Weizhi Chair.

Weizhi turns on the phrase "to know the taste": sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty are the flavours on the tongue, and the many sides of daily life. Designed by Zhang Shiqi in 2022, it takes its frame from mid-century furniture: a solid-wood frame landing at an angle, the arm carried in one line down to the back leg, with a soft seat and back.

At this dark table it can be a chair for meals, or for writing, reading, or a pot of tea. A chair doesn't decide what you do; it only lets you settle down to it.

Behind the lattice doors of the multi-purpose room stands a Qingfeng Chair. The lattice lets the light through, and so does the back of this chair.

The Qingfeng Chair is a 2020 design by Zhou Anbin. Its arms take after the wide sleeves of Han dress. In his sketchbook, a sleeve is drawn beside the lines of the chair, along with notes on how the weave should go. Sleeve-like arms and one light, flowing curve turn the image of a garment into a chair for every day.

The frame and seat are North American ash and the back is natural rattan; the chair measures 590 × 550 × 780 mm. The rattan passes through several hands. Before the cane goes onto the chair, its stray fibres are singed off with a flame; once the frame is assembled, it is strapped tight to set its shape.

In this home, the lattice cuts the light into strips and the rattan sifts it into points; behind those two layers, this corner of the house stays quiet. After a long stretch at a desk, you lean back, and step a little out of whatever was on the page.

The bedrooms are pared back further: ceiling, walls and floor in one colour, and only the most necessary furniture. We did not recognise the black stool by the master-bedroom desk as Dak Haan, so we won't speak for it.