The iD Town youth hostel, on the hilltop of the seaside valley, originally served as one of the dormitory buildings in the Honghua dyeing factory’s residential area, representing the settlements of the first wave of immigrant laborers after the open-reform policy and industrialization that took place in Shenzhen.
The renovation process consisted mainly of two spatial actions: first, equipping the central corridor with new hotel infrastructures to serve the new living units; and, second, installing a sequence of prefab steel boxes to generate openings in the existing façade, creating a more dynamic interaction between the building and the surrounding nature.
The ground floor functions as a multi-purpose social space with a variety of facilities including reception, a cafe, an open kitchen and common areas. By a subtle alteration of the original structure, this handful of functions dynamically relate to one and other.
The living units, located from the second floor to the fourth, are brought back to life by small adaptations of the original framework, introducing a new perspective into the original spatial composition. All these subtle but influential alterations breathe new life into this once ruined structure.
