SKY YARDS HOTEL

ⓒ Chao Zhang

Surrounded by unfinished building site, wasted land and industrial sites, this project is definitely not blessed with a beautiful site. This hotel near a scenic area consists of 48 rooms, an independent restaurant, a banquet hall, swimming pools, underground parking and spaces preserved for later phase development. The site area, construction budget and time are also extremely tight and limited. Fortunately, Taihang Mountain is still visible from the site.
Usually, a hotel room would be designed as an outward box to maximize the view. Consequently, a typical hotel building would be a collection of opened boxes.
The architects rejected this conventional model and went back to the starting point of design: the experience in the room. We reinvented the actual experience in a typical unit: first, the exterior view below eye-level is blocked, while the view above is left open; then the opening is “lifted” or enlarged to invite more light and air; at last, full-size glass doors divided the unit into a combination of interior room and exterior micro courtyard, while the boundary in between is highly blurred. With imperceptible boundaries and a visually continuous experience, the beautiful, scroll-like view of the sky and the mountain powerfully draws attentions. During different times in a day, the sunlight interacts with the curved wall of the opening in different ways, producing dramatic and moving atmosphere.
The building is elevated by half-floor to perfectly meet the complex demands of pedestrian and car circulation. The lawn in front of the building is also “lifted”, providing sloped paths for entrance. The lifted ground forms abstract image of mountains, echoing the view of the real mountain farther away. Forming an abstracted version of the mountain not only complies with Chinese garden-making traditions, but also leads to mass balance by the reuse of the excavated masses on site. Looking out from the first floor, the transparent glass windows surrounded by translucent glass frame the view of the front yard and the mountain far away.
The strategy of “lift” is also applied to interior design: from the circulation routes in the public area of the first floor, to the signage of room numbers on the guest floors. Even the counter desk in the restaurant and the drawer handles in the rooms are also formed by the motion of “lifting”.
Using a very simple and consistent method, they invented a “room + micro-yard” model for hotel design, and transformed the disadvantage of the site into a pleasantly unfamiliar and distinctive experience. Devoid of superficial visual elements of Chinese or local culture, Sky Yards Hotel evokes the traditional Chinese garden-making methodology of concealing and revealing.

ⓒ Chao Zhang

하늘을 향해 열린 파사드, 스카이 야드 호텔
황무지와 산업 부지로 둘러싸인 곳에 세워진 스카이 야드 호텔은 48개의 객실, 독립된 레스토랑, 연회장, 수영장 등이 갖춰진 휴식 공간이다. 건축가는 부지 면적, 건설 예산, 시간 등이 제한적인 상황에도 불구하고, 타이항 산을 바라보며 휴식을 취할 수 있는 자연 속 안식처를 설계했다. 호텔 객실은 시야를 극대화하기 위해 바깥쪽으로 배치됐다. 대지의 일부 공간들은 추후 개발을 위하여 보존되어 있다. 결과적으로 전형적인 호텔 건물은 열린 상자의 모음이 될 것이다.
호텔은 일반적인 유닛에서 실제 경험을 재창조한다. 눈높이 아래의 외부 전망은 차단하고 위쪽으로 열린 전망을 제공한다. 이러한 들어올리거나 확대된 개구부는 더 많은 빛과 공기를 유입하고 테라스의 통창이 객실 내부 공간과 외부의 작은 안뜰 사이 경계를 흐리게 한다. 눈에 띄지 않는 공간의 경계와 이러한 희미한 경계의 시각적 체험은 하늘과 산의 아름다운 풍경으로 이어진다. 개구부의 곡선 벽은 이 호텔 특유의 드라마틱하고 감동적인 분위기를 만들고, 균일한 양의 햇볕을 내부로 들인다.
뿐만 아니라, 호텔은 원활한 보행자 및 차량 순환을 위하여 반 층 정도 높게 배치됐는데, 건물 앞에 조성된 잔디밭과 입구가 경사져 있다. 이러한 솟아오르는 입구는 산의 추상적인 이미지를 떠올리게 만들며, 실제로 근처에 잇는 타이항 산의 모습이 반영된 것이다. 추상적인 산의 이미지는 중국 전통 문화에서 정원의 모습을 떠올리게 할 뿐만 아니라 땅에서 발견된 옛 건축물의 파편을 재사용하여 공간의 균형감을 이끌어낸다. 솟아오르는 이미지는 1층 공공 구역의 순환 경로에서 객실 번호 표지판 등 인테리어 디자인 곳곳에도 적용됐다.
간단하고 일관된 추상적 이미지를 사용하는 것으로 스카이 야드 호텔은 투숙객을 낯설고 독특한 경험으로 안내한다. 은폐하면서도 은근히 드러내는 전통적인 중국 정원을 떠올리게 하는 인상적인 휴식 공간이다.

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

ⓒ Chao Zhang

 

Architect DOMAIN ARCHITECTS
Location Henan, China
Program Hotel
Site area 4,800m2
Buildable area 1,500m2
Gross floor area 4,900m2
Building to land ratio 18.75%
Floor area ratio 102%
Design period 2019. 9 - 2020. 3
Construction period 2019. 12 - 2020. 12
Completion 2021
Principal architect Xiaomeng Xu
Project architect Xiaomeng Xu
Design team Xiaomeng Xu, Chun Wang, Hannah Wang
Structural engineer AND Office
Mechanical engineer Henan Urban & Rural Design Institute
Electrical engineer Henan Urban & Rural Design Institute
Construction Local team(Structure), Henan Jutailong Decoration and Construction Co. Ltd.(Architecture & Landscape)
Photographer Chao Zhang

 

해당 프로젝트는 건축문화 2021년 8월호(Vol. 483)에 게재되었습니다.
The project was published in the August, 2021 issue of the magazine(Vol. 483).

August 2021 : vol. 483