CreatAR Photographs a Reborn Ancestral Home in Taizhou

Today we’re taking you on a sublime virtual tour of the Quin Garden House by DOES Design. Photographed by the insanely talented CreatAR architectural photography studio in Shanghai, you’re in for delicate light and thoughtful compositions that help relay the tale of this amazing home.

The Quin Garden House is a masterful refurbishment of the homeowner’s ancestral home in Taizhou. As CreatAR’s images display, it feels peaceful, clean, almost holy, and yet a warm and inviting place. This opening scene sets things off by allowing us to see just how massive and airy this living space is. By focusing our attention on the stairwell in the center of the frame, we are able to note the height of the ceilings, and decern all of the contiguous rooms that link to this space. There is a nice balance in this scene, between the weighty pillar and the tall wooden built-ins. This opening shot sets the harmonious tone for the project to come.

Looking the opposite direction, the guys at CreatAR frame up this composition in such a way that we are able to see all of the various connecting rooms, from the little slice of the kitchen area on the left, to the doorways across the room. The camera height here feels very natural, and I appreciate that it lets our eyes move through the room, over the furniture with no weird distortion.

Our photographers push our attention to the bank of floor to ceiling windows spanning across the living and dining areas. By keeping the interior exposure relatively dim, our focus is drawn outside to the children playing past the reflecting pool. The balance in exposure looks as it would if we were truly standing in the scene. As we scan the room, we are also able to look down into the ancestral hall that was incorporated into the design.

I love this one-point perspective of the living room. It focuses on all of this space’s best design features, from the gorgeous wooden shelving to the delicate stairs and amazing ceiling. Here, we are able to note the symmetry and geometric feel of the seating area. Another noteworthy thing to point out about CreatAR’s process in this project, is how despite the stark white walls and ceilings, they show restraint in their exposures and color work in post-processing. This creates images that look true and accurate, as well as producing mood in the space.

Great framing here shows the play between the first and second floor of the home. We are able to see the beautiful curvature of the staircase from a new angle, and how it contrasts the sharp square edges found throughout the rest of the house.

I appreciate CreatAR’s ingenuity here, shooting down into the first floor. It’s a very cool angle and this shot showcases this lovely design feature.

Outside, a traditional gate helps fuse the traditional aspects of the home, with its modern shell. By placing the Mount Tai stone in the foreground of this shot, CreateAR gives us a visual anchor as well adds some discernable depth to the scene. Looking from the gate back toward the house, we are able to understand how impressive and complex the Quin Garden House is.

Now we are able to see the reflecting pool from outside, looking in on the children inside. I love the contrast in color here, with the subtly warm interior lights glowing against a faint blue sky. There is a lot of restraint in the post-processing throughout this project, and it makes for beautiful and tranquil photographs.

I’ll leave you with my favorite of CreatAR’s photos: Shooting through the traditional gate frames the house perfectly, driving our eyes right in to the scene. This angle results in a nice rhythm created by the rooflines. The soft twilight sky mixes harmoniously with the soft and glowing solar lighting system on courtyard walls. What a beautiful and serene place!

A massive thank you to Calvin and the team at CreatAR Images. They have an incredible stable of work with equal parts beautiful and funky projects that you should absolutely check out. You can find them on creatarimages.com as well as on Instagram @creatarimages

If you have a project you’d like to be considered for Project of the Week, you can submit it here.