Captivated by the Great Wall during U.S. President Richard Nixon’s historic visit in 1972, Jim Spear, a designer and an architect from the United States, says he dreamed of one day owning a house beneath it. That dream came true in 1994, when he acquired a house in Beijing’s Mutianyu Village.
After moving in, he started a renovation program, turning an abandoned primary school into a restaurant, an art glass shop and a gallery. Furthermore, he rented and renovated a disused glaze tile factory in Beigou Village into a hotel in 2006.
Spear never tears down an old house and rebuilds from scratch.
“It’s an aesthetic principle on my part,” he said.
He sees different varieties and typologies of houses depending on the area and wants to pay respect to the creativity and the lives that the original villagers led.
For more:
Friends from Afar: Dreams built beneath the Great Wall
(All photos provided by Jim Spear)