Figure 1
Interior of a drum tower in Gaobu, Hunan province (photograph by Peter Ferretto).
Figure 2
Aerial view of the Dong village of Gaobu (photograph by Peter Ferretto).
Figure 3
The Dong House timber frame under construction (photograph by Ziwei Liu).
Figure 4
Example of a Gaobu ‘wind-and-rain’ bridge in its daily use by local men (photograph by Peter Ferretto).
Figure 5
Scaled digital model of our design for the ‘Abstract’ prototype (photograph by Ziwei Liu).
Figure 6
Geometric analysis and design proposal for a new Dong House grid as the first trial for our ‘Mutation House’ (drawing by Beryl Wong).
Figure 7
Competition panel that we submitted to the Architectural Review competition in 2021 for what was at that point called the ‘Mutating House’ (drawings by Beryl Wong).
Figure 8
The ‘Half House’ scale model alongside a render/collage view of how the house could be inhabited (model and drawing by Haoyu He).
Figure 9
The ‘Half House’, constituting the final prototype version of the ‘Mutation House’, under construction in Gaobu in September 2023 (photograph by Ziwei Liu).
Figure 10
The front facade as virtually completed in mid-2025, showing the combination of concrete and timber elements (photograph by Tang Shudi).