Suzhou Tongli Villa by Shihe Design: A Dialogue Between Stillness and Daily Ritual

Suzhou Tongli Villa, designed by Hangzhou-based Shihe Design, presents a compelling example of architecture rooted not in spectacle but in presence. Rather than attempting to impress through complexity or assertiveness, the project finds its strength in slowness, silence, and the quiet rhythms of domestic life. The client, Ms. Xiong, sought not simply a house but a refuge, an environment capable of absorbing emotion and anchoring memory. This aspiration became the foundation of the design brief.

Suzhou Tongli Villa Technical Information

• Architects^1-2: Shihe Design
• Location: Suzhou, China
• Gross Area: 450 m² | 4,840 Sq. Ft.
• Completion Year: 2025
• Photographs: © Hanmo Vision – Yigao

This joy does not come from the designer’s ‘sense of completion’, but from the homeowner’s ‘sense of use’ of the space; she began to slowly read this home, seeing it as an extension of her body, a rhythm of daily life, and living with it as a natural state.

– Shihe Design Architects

Suzhou Tongli Villa Photographs

Spatial Qualities: Architecture as an Atmosphere

Chief designers Chen Kezhi and Wang Huaqiang articulate a shift in their design thinking through this project. In their view, the villa’s success lies not in how well it fulfills the architect’s vision but in how deeply it integrates into the homeowner’s way of being. The project, they suggest, is not something to be “used” in a conventional sense but something to be lived with, read, interpreted, and slowly understood over time. In this way, the villa operates less as an object and more as an instrument for introspection.

At its core, the design moves beyond traditional boundaries between interior and exterior, public and private, static and temporal. This architectural stance encourages a form of cohabitation that privileges emotional grounding over formal distinction.

The architectural experience of the villa is constructed around a central courtyard. Here, the design performs not as a void to be framed but as a site for temporal immersion. Light filters through at different angles, casting elongated shadows that change by the hour. Flower petals gather in corners, swept in by passing breezes through an intentionally unsealed door. These seemingly incidental moments are foundational to the spatial philosophy of the house.

The organization of the interior spaces follows a restrained, almost monastic sequence. Circulation is contemplative rather than efficient, encouraging pause and reflection. Furnishings are minimal and subdued, receding into the background to allow spatial qualities to come forward. The architecture privileges what remains unsaid: a faint shimmer on the floor tiles during rain, the soft tactile edge of a mud wall, or the quiet enclosure of a pine-scented room.

Crucially, the lighting strategy reflects this ethos. On rainy days, artificial light is often absent, allowing natural variations in luminance to animate the space. This approach cultivates a sensitivity to ambient conditions that aligns with traditional Chinese spatial thinking, where light and shadow are part of the architectural materiality.

Suzhou Tongli Villa: From Patina to Presence

The material composition of Suzhou Tongli Villa is deliberate in its lack of refinement. Rather than showcasing the finish, the palette invites touch and wear. Slate, decorative paint, teak, reclaimed wood, rammed earth, and rubble form a textural landscape that resists visual dominance. These materials do not compete for attention but participate in a slow conversation with light, moisture, and time.

Old slate tiles are paired with rough-cut timber floors to reinforce a sense of lived continuity. Rammed earth walls introduce an elemental presence, literally and symbolically grounding the architecture. Rubble, a material typically concealed or discarded, is employed visibly, reminding of erosion, ruin, and repair.

This approach echoes a deeper architectural ethos that sees materials not as surface treatments but as vessels of memory and weathering. The textures in the home are designed to evolve. Smudges, scratches, and stains are not considered defects but signs of life, allowing the villa to accumulate history as it is inhabited.

Broader Context: Living Architecture and the Ethics of Inhabitation

Located in the historically rich city of Suzhou, the villa draws quietly on regional traditions without replicating them. The spatial modesty, openness to natural elements, and reverence for material tactility all evoke characteristics of vernacular Jiangnan architecture. Yet the design resists any pastiche or nostalgic formalism. Instead, it engages with tradition through attitude and sensibility.

Shihe Design’s approach challenges dominant narratives in contemporary residential architecture, where novelty and spectacle often overshadow inhabitation. Here, the focus is on the long arc of living: how a space holds the mundane, the poetic, and the unspeakable aspects of daily existence. The designers explicitly reject the idea that completion marks the end of the architectural process. For them, the accurate measure of a project’s success is revealed only over time as the inhabitant aligns with the space.

The homeowner’s response affirms this approach. Her connection to the house has become one of trust and intimacy. She does not simply occupy the space; she listens to it, coexists with it, and allows it to carry her emotions. This reciprocity between the user and architecture suggests a form of ethical and enduring dwelling.

In an era increasingly dominated by efficiency, branding, and rapid turnover, Suzhou Tongli Villa reminds us of architecture’s deeper capacities. It is a project that calls for slowness, presence, and renewed consideration of what it means to design spaces that are truly lived.

Suzhou Tongli Villa Plans

Suzhou Tongli Villa Image Gallery

About Shihe Design

Shihe Design is a Hangzhou-based architecture and interior design studio founded in 2017, known for its thoughtful integration of spatial, material, and emotional dimensions. Specializing in private residences, hotels, offices, and cultural spaces, the studio approaches each project as a dialogue between people and their environments. With a design philosophy grounded in restraint, natural materiality, and sensory awareness, Shihe Design emphasizes the creation of spaces that foster stillness, reflection, and long-term inhabitation over aesthetic spectacle.

Credits and Additional Notes

1. Designers: Chen Kezhi, Wang Huaqiang
2. Client: Ms. Xiong
3. Main Materials: Slate, decorative paint, teak floor, wooden floor, old slate, slate tile, rammed earth, rubble