Rizhao, Shandong, China

OI Architects have completed the new tourist resort Sun Inn and Sun Culture Expo Park for Shangdong Ocean Culture Tourism Development, located on Tiantai Mountain and one of the five major birthplaces of the sun culture in the world. 

It is the first high-end B&B project focusing on the “sun culture” and themed on the Twelve Constellations and the Twenty-four Solar Terms in Rizhao City, Shandong Province.

Situated in the north part of Tiantai Mountain, Sun Inn borders highways in the east and north. Its terrain is relatively steep in the west and gentle in the east. 

Inspired by the sun culture, the design team made the hotel a gigantic research project to showcase the ancient Chinese views of the universe and enabled this profound concept to be skillfully integrated into the vacation experience of tourists.

Upon thorough study of the sun culture, architects decided to reconstruct the sun civilization with elements drawn from the Twelve Constellations and the Twelve Zodiac Signs. 

According to the Author’s Preface of Records of the Grand Historian, “yin and yang, as well as the four seasons, eight directions, Twelve Constellations, and Twenty-four Solar Terms, all have their own operating law.” 

Based on their observations of the sun, our ancestors invented the calendar to record the time; the earth goes around the sun to form the four seasons, which then fostered the agricultural civilization; with people’s deepening understanding of the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies, human society keeps evolving infinitely.

With the lobby as the core, 12 round-shaped scenery rooms and 38 standard guestrooms form a concentric circular layout, with suites that correspond to the Twelve Constellations distributed on the inner circle. 

The standard guestrooms, stairways, and entrances on the outer circle, with two as a group, compose 24 interconnected small architectural complexes corresponding to the Twenty-four Solar Terms. 

The east gate is the main entrance to this group of buildings. 

The entire terrain declines from west to east, and architects used this topographical gap to ensure guestrooms gradually rise from the east entrance and make them unblocked by each other. 

The buildings are scattered on three tiers alongside the hillside, with each two having an elevation gap of 4.2 meters and linked by elevators. 

For this reason, they rise up and down with the rolling terrain.

Building and decoration materials mainly include stone, wall coatings, aluminum plates, and glass. 

The exterior walls are decorated with indigenous stone and rammed earth-like coating and thus have a primitive hue and diverse three-dimensional textures. 

In addition, the inside walls of the courtyard also use rammed earth-like coating, emphasizing the coherence of inner and outer spaces.

Guests enter through the east gate and check in at the reception desk. 

Then, they may take a lift at the end of an underground corridor to reach the lobby, as if they were traveling in a time tunnel toward a long river of the ancient sun culture. 

From the lobby, one can get to guestrooms on different floors. 

On cloudless days, whether in the daytime or at night, guests can enjoy the sunlight or moonlight penetrating through the skylight on the roof, which forms a unique trajectory inside the room that can only be seen in the right season. 

Guests may feel like they were part of the constellation operating in the orbit and spent a wonderful night in a tribe of remote antiquity.

In such a room, guests can not only enjoy the beautiful view of the sky unique to this moment and season but also feel the wonder of nature and the wisdom of ancient people. 

This is the answer for the integration between modern lifestyles and the ancient sun culture that we have long pursued.

Project: Sun Inn, Sun Culture Expo Park
Architects: OI Architects 
Design Team: Qian Jian, Ni Yi Lin, Yang Rui, Pan Sai Nan, and Ren Mei Yue
Associate Architects: East China Architectural Design and Research Institute (ECADI)
Landscape Architects: SH J.L.Lv Hua 
Interior Architects: Hyee design
Client: Shangdong Ocean Culture Tourism Development Co., Ltd.
Photographers: Photographer: ZY Architectural Photography