Huzhou, China
Located at the entrance to Yao Liang Village in Zhejiang Province, Peitree Resort Yaoliang by Liu Junya, Ma Lianwen, and Zhuang Wenhao of DDB Architects and BEING Architectural Design is a resort complex that is a conversion of a two-story village primary school and which takes on the forms of the surrounding landscape.
Peitree Resort Yaoliang has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The former school, which was known to have been built by the villagers brick by brick, has been relocated, but the building in the rice field bears the memory of that generation.
The cultural auditorium beside the site and the old maple tree enclose a spiritual space at the entrance of the village.
Covering an area of ten mu, the project is adjacent to the auditorium on the west and the Chunxi Spring on the east, with an elevation difference of around four or five meters.
In line with the terrain features, the design kept the same scale as the previous primary school and the auditorium and extended the building from west to east, so as to make the project “cling” to the earth and extend along the horizon.
The public space was arranged on the south side of the first floor and guest rooms on the north of the second floor, with a courtyard in the center.
The lobby and restaurant are situated on the highland on the west, while the swimming pool was set below the pine garden on the north side of the lobby based on a natural elevation difference.
The recreational space extends westward to the Book Bar surrounded on three sides by courtyards, tactically and naturally smoothing the elevation difference.
The reception area and the recreational area open up toward the outside at different levels, seamlessly connecting with the farmland.
Along with the Chunxi Spring on the east side, lanes were set up between the independent courtyards of five one-to-two-story buildings.
The horizontal extension of the rooftops thus contributes to the richness and delicateness of the village.
The changes and transformations of the space are realized by the connection of multi-level courtyards.
The subtle borrowing scenery creates a dialogue between the space and the surrounding landscapes.
The space spans from the South Water Courtyard, through the Pine Garden to the north of the lobby and the Cherry Garden of the Book Bar, to the Moon Gate at the end of the laneway of the courtyard.
The north-facing Moon Gate frames a not-too-distant hill, where the gable and roof of a temple sit on the bamboo forest, shimmering in the sunlight.
The wooden box in the lobby captures the field and mountain views.
The hotel is anchored in the rice field so that its customers are surrounded by these fields.
The natural elements, such as mountains, bamboo, pine trees, plum creek, and rice fields, create pure pastoral sceneries that can be appreciated all year round.
The natural landscapes are blended into the building to create a rural spatial environment.
In this way, it is aimed to be built into a high-end resort hotel that provides guests with comfortable and exquisite rooms with modern and stylish features, where they can enjoy the landscapes and idylls in all four seasons.
The design began with the site selection and conception of form and space based on the primitive features of the village, introducing an architectural scale that is more suitable for modern life.
The design applies the enframed scenery technique of classical gardens to present the most beautiful forms of old trees, tea hills, bamboo forests, plum creeks, and rural fields.
The design maintains continuity in both material and style in the indoor space, semi-outdoor space, the facade, and the landscapes.
The project combines a concrete frame structure and steel structure to ensure the safety and aesthetics of the building.
In the absence of supporting facilities, natural resources are utilized, such as digging wells on site for water, water purification, rainwater, sewage treatment, recycling of reclaimed water, etc.
Renewable energy is utilized, and the project adopts a ground-source heat pump system with high performance, heat recovery, and no pollution or noise.
The project takes advantage of the fields’ natural height difference to allow the building to be rooted in the land as if it were growing in the land.
The project adopts various scenery-borrowing design approaches to facilitate people in the building living in harmony with the surroundings while connecting with the village’s cultural context (cultural auditorium and temple).
The project has an appropriate architectural scale.
The buildings link to the auditorium on the west and the village on the east, with a scale changing naturally and properly based on the terrain.
The project retains the natural forms and farming of the fields, so as to endow the project with varying views of four seasons, such as flowers in spring, rice seedlings in summer, mature rice in autumn, and snow in winter.
Project: Peitree Resort Yaoliang
Architects: DDB Architects and BEING Architectural Design
Design Team: Liu Junya, Ma Lianwen, and Zhuang Wenhao
General Contractor: Anji Peitree Resorts Group
Client: Peitree Resort Yaoliang Co., Ltd.
Photographers: BEING Architectural Design
