From bare shell to home...

We bought a new home earlier this year and what may seem “unusual” in other parts of the world is that we stripped it completely back to its “bare shell” (毛坯房, máopī fáng).

Out came the kitchen, bathroom, flooring, electrical wiring and plumbing systems, and even windows and frames—until only the structure and basic incoming utilities remained.

What is following now is a full rebuild from the inside out. It started a few weeks ago with stripping everything back to bare, these days the focus is on tiling and window installation.

In China, this is not unusual. In fact, it is often the norm.

Newly built apartments are usually delivered in a basic structural condition, leaving the interior as a blank canvas for the owner. Even when homes come fully decorated, or when purchasing existing homes with interiors, many families choose to strip and redo them entirely.

When we bought our first home some years ago, it initially felt excessive. Now, I understand it differently.

There is a desire to take quality and design into one’s own hands—not only for comfort and well-being, but also because of a deeper social and cultural layer. Stripping and rebuilding become almost a rite of passage: building a home into your own from the very basics, a personal space not only for the immediate family but also potentially for elders and future generations.

After the complete stripping in recent weeks, watching the workers lay tiles and install new window frames in our new home this morning is a reminder that “home” is not delivered—it is built into your own, even when the canvas is already there.

Beijing, China