Project name: Cloud Retreat Hotel at Sanshan Island
Design: CocoonStudio Shanghai
Contact e-mail: cocoonstudio@126.com
Design year & Completion Year: Design:2019.6-2019.9 Complete:2020.10
Leader designer & Team: Wang Weishi；Structure consultant：Zhang Zhun
Project location: Sanshan Island， Wuzhong District，Suzhou
Gross Built Area (square meters): 2150
Photo credits: Wu Qingshan
Clients: Cloud Retreat Hotel

Renovation and interior design of Cloud Retreat Hotel on Sanshan island Taihu lake

In the summer of 2019, we come to the construction site on Sanshan island in the midlle of Taihu lake as the client consult us for a re-design proposal of the on-going hotel project. At that time, the project was facing a giant modification as the request of government: half of the building needs to be canceled leaving an empty field in the middle of the site; The original modern white box design needs to be changed to slope roof style to coordinate with the Chinese traditional style of Suzhou. Based on such demand, we started our new renovation design.

We were facing 3 major challenges: 1. How to use the empty field and re-compose the space system. 2. How to change the unyielding request of slope roof to a positive factor and create a special public space. 3. How to improve the space quality by interior design. Based on such perspective, we focus our design on 3 major part of the building and propose 3 major concepts.

Half Porch Half Pavilion

As the entrance of the hotel, this space of irregular shape accommodates a series of entrances of independent rooms. It also constitutes a boundary of internal and external, house and garden.

The design starts from the reorganization of existing spaces: A courtyard space was formed by the removal of original hotel room building, where the designed height differences of ground left over. It is a basic problem to reorganize the space according to the existing situation.

In our first proposal, we construct the boundary between the building and courtyard by using a winding corridor grey space surrounding the garden. It connects different internal functional spaces and organize the circulation. This system not only connect the internal space and external spaces, but also define the courtyard. By walking on this route, a varied experience of landscape is created due to the height differences and varied openings of surrounding interface. The corridor of same width confronts a sudden change due to the need of avoiding an existing jujube tree at the entrance part. An enlarged roof is formed, creating a dramatic place: Due to dimension mutation, the concept of corridor is changed to a pavilion by the jujube tree which directly participate in landscape instead of being a boundary. A 1.5-meter height wall is placed under the roof to distinguish the front square space and downward ramp behind, converting this space to a double corridor: half porch half pavilion-a compound space under one roof.

In actual construction, the corridor system is not completed, only the entrance part is build. However, the missing of other parts seems to strengthen the independence and space intention of the design concept. Half porch half pavilion as a special installation not only form an entrance space and create an interactive boundary, but also create two different perceptions of space. This space is not only an expression of internal and external, but also present the hidden spatial relationship and cognition between landscape, topography and architecture space.

Floating Roof Framing View

The concrete slope roof attic space on top of main building is designed according to the request of slope roof. In our design, we try to find a light and graceful way to put a slope roof onto the existing structure and space, creating a harmonious overall exterior appearance and also creating an exciting space at the highest place of the whole project.

A 180 mm thick cast-in-place concrete board system is adopted to form the structure. By using the triangular feature of slope, we form this space with no beam. The thin board form is presented both interior and exterior, creating the appearance of floating and lightness. Besides the lightness, this system also provides the possibility of view frame: a horizontal long opening facing the Taihu lake creates a terrace embedded into the roof, this opening frames a horizontal picturesque viewport of the landscape by the low hanging eaves; On the east side, the outline of the hill fit into the triangle opening between roof and walls, flow into the space. The landscape of the nature is brought into the space as pictures through the frames created between the roof and the building.

The tea house facing Taihu lake is the core space of the whole place. The low-lying posture hinted by furniture prompt the way of viewing this horizontal picture of nature, together with the high space of the climbing roof, this space gets multiple vertical scales. The extension of the roof outline brought in the landscape and also form the terrace as one part of the teahouse space. The slight sunken place in the teahouse is filled with white stones to present an abstract perception of water, which mentions the connection between people, space and geographical nature.

Lower Living & Distant Dwelling

Distant dwelling describes the status of the life on island, low lying living presents the quality and attitude of living by the lake. In room interior design, we try to present this image through space: A deliberately lowered ceiling and a free-flowing floor plan, form a horizontal space with far horizontal view of the landscape, it also present a small scale low-lying posture with the meaning of leisure. Certain parts of the room ceiling are raised in this horizontal space to form the sense of different domain. Besides, we bring in two different wall materials with similar color but contrasting texture to enhance this height difference of ceiling. The rough sandblasting paint depict the side and top of the higher space, in contrast with the smooth paint used on the walls below with closer relationship to people scale, creating double scales of the space, changing the negative factor of low floor height to a characteristic, which also connected to the atmosphere and image of living on the island in the middle of lake.