The Shanghai firm headed by Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu were tasked to renovate an old brick building containing two levels of offices, to combine this use with a cultural center including a library, an exhibition hall, and a multipurpose space for 100 people. Located in Beijing’s Miyun district, amid mountains and rivers, the existing concrete structure was used, and a floor was added. Minimizing the building’s visual impact, the facades are given rhythm by vertical aluminum panels of brown tones covering the brick walls of grayish colors, which also clad the interior walls. The volumes are woven around a main courtyard and are complemented by garden areas that play with the presence of water in raised pools ‘carved’ with a network of routes.