NEO-TULOU

NEO-TULOU reinterprets the collective logic of the Chinese tulou for a contemporary co-living community in Hong Kong. The project combines a porous perimeter, a shared courtyard, private units, collective amenities, vegetation, and public connections. The architectural and performance work belong on one page because each environmental decision responds to a spatial idea.

The proposal responds to a dense urban context by opening the courtyard block to surrounding movement rather than reproducing a closed historical type. Permeable ground connections, vertical circulation, public-facing programs, and landscape turn the perimeter into an interface between the co-living community and the city.

Private units are organized around a collective interior world of circulation, terraces, amenities, and vegetation. The courtyard becomes the project’s social center and its primary orientation device, creating a sequence from the city to shared space and finally to the dwelling.

Massing, glazing, and shading alternatives were tested with daylight metrics including spatial daylight autonomy and annual sunlight exposure. The studies make visible a central trade-off: opening the perimeter and courtyard can improve access to daylight, but solar exposure and glare must be controlled. The selected direction coordinates geometry, façade transparency, and shading rather than treating daylight as a late-stage check.

The performance study used an ASHRAE 90.1 climate-zone 2A framework and examined façade-specific glazing properties, schedules, loads, and envelope alternatives. Response curves informed U-value and solar-heat-gain decisions, while a staged envelope-optimization process tested how thermal improvements affected both energy use and comfort. Results remain tied to the modeled assumptions.

Five residential HVAC options were compared. Radiant floor systems performed well for energy-use intensity and comfort, but the project also required mechanical ventilation; the coordinated scheme therefore selected fan coils served by a central plant. Comfort studies compared active systems with passive behavior and acknowledged Hong Kong’s heat, humidity, and odor constraints on natural ventilation.

The technical package resolves the architectural expression through façade fixings, bamboo screens, insulation, airtightness, curtain-wall and operable-window assemblies, parapets, roofs, intermediate floors, and junctions. Cropped details reveal the relationship between the screen, weather barrier, thermal layers, structure, and interior finish.

The result is an integrated academic proposal in which the courtyard operates as both a social space and an environmental device, while the envelope and services respond to the local climate. The nine-person team developed the work collaboratively; Ramyar contributed to architectural development, performance analysis, system comparison, and representation.