Yahoo News 
This ready-made retrofit system can renovate old homes in just a few hours with a wrench
People’s Architecture Office
Many homes in the historic Beijing district of Dashilar are centuries old — some even date back to China's Ming Dynasty. When a home needs renovations, it's often demolished and rebuilt from scratch. Restoration is usually too expensive and time-consuming.
The People's Architecture Office, a local design firm, wanted to find an easier and more efficient way to renovate. So the team designed the Courtyard House Plug-in, a ready-made retrofit that updates a home for the 21st century while still preserving its historical style.
The firm's principal and MIT alum, James Shen, compares it to Ikea furniture: Anyone can renovate a home with the system in a few hours.
The pilot project has won a World Architecture Festival Award, and the firm will showcase it in the Venice Architecture Biennale in late May.
It has received limited funding from the Beijing government, and is still looking for investors. Besides the urban center of Dashilar, the team is also experimenting with the plug-ins in rural villages.
Take a look at the design.
