葛稚川归隐居
Rural Hotel Design | 2019 | Hangzhou, Zhejiang
This design is a tourism complex focused on an experiential journey. It aims to explore the possibility of transforming the traditional Chinese concept of landscape into a real spatial experience, set in the suburban area near a city, extending from the city's organized urban texture. Inspired by the painting Ge Zhichuan Moves to a New Dwelling, which depicts the scene of Daoist priest Ge Hong and his family relocating to Mount Luofu during the Jin Dynasty, the design starts from the three views mentioned by Guo Xi in his work Linquan Gaozhi—"high and distant," "deep and distant," and "level and distant." It analyzes the shifting visual relationships in the artwork, and overlays these concepts onto the interior of a building strictly controlled by central axes and geometric order, extending the city texture. The result is an experiential journey that transitions from landscape (site scenery) to urban environment (the continuation of the city’s texture), and back to landscape (an internal spatial experience akin to the journey depicted in the painting), blending the virtual and the real, combining illusion and substance.
The site is located near the S38 National Highway in Shenjiang Town, Ningbo City, in the eastern coastal area of Zhejiang, separated from the East China Sea by just a mountain. The site boasts rich natural landscape resources. Four natural elements—shore, forest, water, and lake—are extracted from the surroundings and integrated into the design, allowing nature to permeate into the architecture. The aim is to create an atmosphere where people experience the space as if they are playing by the shore, wandering through the forest, resting by a waterfall, or mooring on a lake. The architecture serves as an extension of the natural environment.
The goal is to seek a poetic geometry that belongs to Chinese indigenous architecture. It is controlled by pictorial intent and serves as a narrative approach that speaks to nature through landscapes. This requires us first to reclaim and rebuild a way of envisioning that is rooted in the spirit of painting. Only once this mode of vision is restored can other aspects be discussed. This introductory course has its philosophical foundation, with a grand principle at its core. This principle is to return to a natural mode of vision, to return to a design path that learns from nature.
The site contains various natural landscapes that create different scales of tension, which, in turn, shape the architectural massing through continuous refinement. We have chosen the stream in the valley as the primary element, allowing the guest rooms to flow along the shoreline, much like the local residential structures. However, the scattered distribution of guest rooms along the river proved too disjointed, so we designed a circular plaza. This plaza not only unifies the roads and potential activities within the hotel, but also provides a space for gatherings. Additionally, along the circular plaza, there is a long walkway that guides users toward another courtyard, which also serves as a buffer between the hotel and the highway.
The space unfolds along the same axis. Upon entering through the main gate, one passes through the lobby, restaurant, meeting rooms, and a scenic corridor. Although the scenic corridor cannot be directly accessed from the public areas, users on the second floor of the restaurant can still enjoy different views of the stream. Even from the lobby, one can view a corresponding water feature that echoes the natural landscape.
