Jiuxi Rose Garden — A Serene Courtyard House
Jiuxi Rose Garden sits in Hangzhou, China, as a private house by GFD shaped around quiet contact with landscape and light. The 500-square-meter residence draws nature into daily rituals, from tea and reading to family gatherings, through restrained materials and calm furnishings that keep the focus on texture, proportion, and the slow movement of the seasons. Rooms stay open yet composed, inviting an unhurried way of living.
Stone underfoot, soft greenery at the edge, and filtered light set the tone on arrival, as the courtyard draws the eye inward toward the quiet house. A narrow path folds through planting and a still podocarpus, so the first impression is not façade but the grain of stone, leaf, and shade.
This private house in Hangzhou’s Jiuxi Rose Garden gives a 500-square-meter home a measured intimacy, using a restrained palette to bind landscape and rooms. GFD organizes the residence around daily rituals—tea, dining, reading, sleeping—while keeping attention on how light touches wood, stone, and fabric throughout the day. Interior character comes less from display and more from the way materials carry time and use.
Courtyard As Living Room
The courtyard extends the life of the interior, so the house feels pulled into the garden rather than set against it. A stone path bends gently, its irregular rhythm echoing a quiet stream, while the podocarpus tree stands in calm contrast to the shifting dapple of sun on the ground. From the living room, floor-to-ceiling glass holds this view almost like a moving painting, letting greenery, air, and daylight wash across the threshold. Inside and out read as one continuous volume, yet the tactile change from stone to interior flooring keeps each zone legible.
Living Room In Warm Neutrals
In the main living room, a deep gray sofa grounds the composition, giving weight and calm to a volume filled with light. An ochre armchair, reminiscent of autumn leaves, adds a single, confident note of color that picks up the tones of the garden beyond. At the center rests a tea table that pairs raw wood grain with metal, its veining and subtle sheen carrying a sense of age and quiet craft. The Signoretto lamp rises directly from the floor, bringing a vertical glow that balances the horizontal sweep of the glazing and sets a slow, layered rhythm at night.
In one corner, a dedicated tea area sharpens the mood. A simple wooden table, a teapot, and a few cups define the scene more than any decoration could, leaving room for steam, gesture, and conversation. Morning mist and evening shadow give the corner different weights across the day, but the palette stays constant: warm timber, soft textiles, and a restrained array of objects tuned to touch.
Dining, Kitchen, And Study Flow
The dining room and kitchen share a broad, connected layout, so movement from cooking to eating stays fluid. A glass sliding door marks the divide when needed, yet its transparency preserves visual depth, allowing the dark line of cabinetry and the glow of pendant lights to read together. Soft leather chairs gather around a round dining table, their curves inviting long meals while the overhead pendants cast a diffused, even light that flattens glare on plates and surfaces. Materials do the quiet work here: smooth tabletops, gentle upholstery, and clean lines that keep clutter at bay.
Tucked into a corner of the ground floor, the study stays almost reticent. A wooden desk and shelving unit share similar grain, so the eye reads them as one continuous element that wraps work, books, and objects. Greenery outside the window becomes part of the composition, a moving counterpart to the stillness of paper and wood. This modest room underlines the project’s approach, where furnishings lean toward utility yet carry a calm presence.
Corridor, Stair, And Lounge
A corridor links public and private rooms, its length animated by shifting daylight across stone flooring. Clean wall contours keep the passage clear, and a glimpse of greenery at the far end pulls the body forward with a quiet sense of anticipation. The staircase introduces a sculptural note, its handrail drawing a sinuous line between wood textures and marble surfaces that register each footfall under changing shadows. This vertical movement becomes a daily ritual, a repeated contact with material heft and crafted edges.
At the family lounge, the palette softens again. A curving fabric sofa wraps the seating zone, while a dark-toned tea table adds contrast and a place to gather books, drinks, and casual conversation. Behind the sofa, a low-key display shelf holds art books and personal objects, turning the wall into a gentle archive of shared memory rather than a formal gallery. Comfort relies on radius corners, forgiving fabrics, and the way light settles on muted surfaces at the end of the day.
Quiet Bedrooms And Studio
In the master bedroom, chestnut-toned wooden flooring and warm white walls create a soft, low-contrast enclosure. Daylight passes through sheer curtains, giving the room a filtered glow that lands on the bed, side tables, and a slender pendant light. By the window, an amber armchair faces a creamy lounge chair with a small, smooth table between, the trio forming a compact conversation nook anchored by views of shifting pine shadows. Texture carries the mood here, from woven upholstery to the subtle grain under bare feet.
The guest bedroom stays even more pared back. A gently curved warm-brown headboard meets a textured wall, so bed and backdrop read as one calm composition. A painting resting casually against the wall and a sleek chair beside it introduce a hint of tension, as if mid-arrangement, suggesting that the room can toggle between sleeping and quiet contemplation. Art and furniture keep to a limited palette, allowing visitors to feel held, not overwhelmed.
On the third floor, the studio becomes the most explicitly creative room. A drawing table anchors the center, with an easel, palettes, and pigments forming a loose ring of activity around it. Greenery outside sifts the sunlight, so working light is bright yet gentle, kind to both paper and eyes. The interior treatment is almost bare here, leaving air, tools, and light to define the room’s character.
By the time dusk returns to the courtyard, the house feels threaded together by repeated notes of wood, stone, fabric, and soft light. Each room speaks in the same quiet palette yet answers a different daily need, from tea and reading to rest and making art. In Jiuxi Rose Garden, material calm and carefully tuned furnishings let nature and routine share the foreground, giving everyday life a patient, enduring rhythm.
Photography courtesy of GFD
- by Matt Watts
