Porcelain Studio Plugins is a prefabricated modular system developed by People’s Architecture Office for the renewal of typical porcelain workshop buildings in Jingdezhen. By inserting various functional modules into the complex roof structures of these workshops, it creates new courtyard spaces through a reversible renovation approach.
The site is located in the Taoyangli Historic District of Jingdezhen, centered around the ruins of the Ming and Qing imperial kilns. Historically, this area served as the royal kiln complex. During the Ming and Qing periods, a urban layout known as “official kilns supplemented by civilian firing” gradually took shape, with numerous private kilns distributed around the official ones. Kiln houses and porcelain workshops were highly concentrated, typically with about ten workshops surrounding one or two kiln houses—a distinctive feature of the area’s historical fabric known as “one kiln, ten workshops.”
The remaining historic district is mainly located to the east and west of the Imperial Kiln site, where overall renewal planning and restoration have been carried out. The Plugin units in this renovation are scattered across various courtyards within the district.
Porcelain workshops were traditional spaces for ceramic body preparation, equivalent to modern raw material processing and forming workshops. Here, artisans completed processes such as throwing, shaping, drying, and painting.
Most workshops consist of a three-wing layout comprising a main room, a storage room, and a clay room, all opening toward the courtyard to provide good drying conditions and ample space. The functional layout is compact, with a built-in “loop-shaped” production line.
The workshop buildings feature column-and-tie timber frames specifically designed for the ceramic forming process. When connecting frames, some linking members are placed at different heights to create drying racks for placing body-drying boards. The timber frames have narrow spacing and relatively low heights, often below human height.
With the decline of the imperial kiln’s function and the rise of modern ceramic industry in the 1980s, handmade porcelain production gradually waned. The old wood-fired kilns within the ancient city were gradually abandoned, and the surrounding workshops fell into disuse. The main challenge of the renovation design was how to protect and adaptively reuse these workshop buildings with minimal intervention.
After comprehensive research and analysis of the workshop buildings in the area, it was found that due to their terrain-adaptive construction, the buildings exhibit highly irregular plans and varied forms. While the sectional relationships are relatively consistent, dimensions and proportions also differ significantly.
How to preserve the spatial characteristics of traditional workshops while adapting them to modern functional needs? How to implement standardized light-touch renovations for workshops of varying forms? How to adopt standardized modular design while allowing for personalized customization based on user needs? These were the key questions faced in this renewal project.
We adopted the “Plugin” method for renovating all courtyards, inserting a prefabricated modular construction system into the workshops to transform old and idle spaces into living and working areas for young artists. By enhancing local spatial comfort and introducing new functions, these historic spaces are revitalized and preserved.
Due to the irregular form of the drying racks, the flexibility of the Plugin system shines—maneuvering within the racks, elevated or flat-placed, to form better-insulated and enclosed living spaces, while the remaining semi-outdoor areas are transformed into perse workspaces. This achieves reversible spatial transformation without damaging the original structures.
As part of the Taoyangli Historic District, the Imperial Kiln area requires protective restoration measures for old buildings such as workshops. Renovations must not damage the main structures and must be reversible, allowing the removal of added elements to restore the buildings to their original state when necessary. The Plugin approach retains most semi-outdoor spaces as open work areas, leaving original building components untouched and inserting only a small number of modular plugins. These plugins provide enclosed, well-insulated interior spaces for functions such as living and gathering.
The Plugin system is a lightweight, prefabricated modular system placed directly on indoor floors, allowing quick installation and removal—a completely reversible method.
The large number of workshops in the Imperial Kiln area requires new programs to reactivate them, along with improvements to infrastructure and spatial comfort in the courtyards. Thus, the renovation has the conditions and need for scalability.
The Plugin system is designed for productization, with modules fabricated in factories, transported flat, and assembled on-site. Bathroom and kitchen modules integrate built-in sanitary facilities with the Plugin system, enabling a degree of scaled design, production, and installation, thereby achieving higher quality at lower costs.
The Plugin system is a modular prefabricated system with standardized panel dimensions, allowing scalable design adapted to the typical span and depth dimensions of workshops. Customization of panel sizes in one direction enables adaptation to any workshop size. Sloped roofs also allow more efficient use of workshop spaces. The system balances modularity with sufficient flexibility to handle complex spatial conditions.
While based on standardized modules, the Plugin system also offers customized variations. Work/gathering, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom modules are relatively standardized, but can be personalized through exterior materials and colors, custom doors and windows, and integrated furniture to meet different users’ needs, resulting in perse products.
This renovation focuses on four courtyard groups scattered throughout the old city. Each courtyard and its workshop buildings vary, but the Plugin system effectively addresses the renewal challenges of each.
Courtyard C34 consists of two workshops and two residential buildings, one of which is parallelogram-shaped. The courtyard has a triangular layout with an existing drying rack at its center, creating a complex and perse spatial condition.
The renovation accommodates three artists. The smaller residential building serves as a shared kitchen with one Plugin kitchen module. The two workshops and the larger residential building are dedicated to inpidual artists. The workshop Plugin modules integrate bedrooms, workspaces, and bathrooms. The residential building contains a bedroom + bathroom module and an office module. The deeper bedroom module uses a combined flat and sloped roof to introduce more natural light. Both bedroom and office modules are equipped with integrated HVAC units to ensure comfort during extreme weather.
Courtyard H20 is relatively small, consisting of one deep workshop and a narrow courtyard—a typical independent workshop yard. The workshop’s large depth gives it a relatively high ridge height.
Designed for a single artist, the inserted Plugin modules include workspace, living area, bathroom, and kitchen. The bedroom module uses an elevated mezzanine to utilize the workshop space more efficiently. The workspace module features fully openable façades facing the interior and courtyard, enhancing openness and flexibility.
Courtyard P58 comprises one long workshop and one residential building. The workshop originally had an entrance at the northeast corner, typical of Jingdezhen’s八-shaped main doors. The courtyard entrance has been relocated to the northwest corner.
Designed for three artists, the residential building is transformed into a public exhibition space. The eastern part of the workshop contains a public kitchen and dining area with one Plugin kitchen module, while the western part houses three combined office-bedroom Plugin modules for the artists. Each has a ground-floor office and a mezzanine sleeping loft, staggered in height, with the platform above the office module usable as a tea area.
Part of the courtyard is allocated for the main entrance and public exhibition area, while the remainder is pided equally among the three artists in a zigzag layout.
Yanghua Lane Courtyard consists of three workshops and an L-shaped residential building, surrounding a newly built Chimney Café. The workshop courtyard and the café plaza are separated by a one-level height difference.
Each building serves as an independent unit. The three workshops each contain two bedroom modules placed on mezzanines, along with ground-floor office, bathroom, and kitchen modules. The residential building, with its greater height, accommodates six living modules on mezzanines to support functions such as study tours requiring more lodging capacity.
The Taoyangli Historic District in Jingdezhen is undergoing functional evolution under overall renewal planning, with new user groups and programs gradually emerging. The “Plugin” system offers a adaptive reuse strategy that can integrate various functional modules into existing workshops while preserving their heritage value. It enhances comfort and flexibility, supporting perse programs within the historic fabric.