In most homes, the entry opens onto a living room, perhaps a kitchen. Zhou Shu arrives to find her wardrobe and wide-open bathroom just beyond the foyer, with her glass-walled bedroom between them. This is no tight city flat but a 2,000 square foot (185 square metre) residence in a leafy pocket on the outskirts of Chongqing, in southwest China. Upstairs are a full-size kitchen, dining and living areas, plus a garden at the top. This inversion of the conventional domestic plan is only half the...