This retreat lies in a bamboo and tea plant valley in the north of Zhejiang province. With an east-west length of more than 100 meters and a north-south width of less than 30 meters, the narrow site is located to the north of a brook.
There once was a primary school lined along the north boundary of this site, and the remaining southern part of the site was a playground.
Following this figure-ground relation, we distributed the single mass volume into small components, and then spread them onto the ground according to different elevations of the site. The design intends to maximize the view of the landscape in the south and fulfill the requirements of sunshine, with the consideration of the privacy of hotel rooms, imperceptibility and flexibility of the service circulation, and diversity of the exterior environment.
The double pitch black tile roof of the primary school is the site’s oldest building. We try to maintain the black brick walls because they are made of a local material, and imbue them with a sense of scale and relatively practical value.
The construction of the roof is also a result of integration of the tile roof form of local housing, as well as the installation requirement of insulation and the response to the surrounding mountain shape.
In this ambient site, we try to restrain our subjective emotion to present the essence of the architecture by responding to a series of basic questions like site location, function, and architectural material since we believe that if the building is conceived sophisticatedly enough for its site and program, it will develop its own strength through use, and serve as a part of the natural world, with no need for artistic additions.
Photography: Hou Bowen.