Located around 35 km northeast of Beijing's city center in the district of Shunyi, the architects renovated and extended an existing house turning it into their new home for a family of four and two dogs. "Our conversion project serves as a model for escaping the spiraling rental costs of Beijing's inner city. We cut down our monthly rent by two-thirds over the leasing period of 15 years while including the refurbishing costs. However, this certainly comes with a trade-off of commuting to the city every day. It's a price we were ready to pay," says Christian Taeubert, Co-founder of guò bàn er.