Renowned as a paradise on Earth, Yangshuo is famous for its landscape of karst mountains, green hills and winding rivers, resembling a beautiful Chinese painting.
Designed by Dong Gong of a Beijing-based practice Vector Architects, with interiors by award-winning Ju Bin of Horizontal Space Design, the vision for Alila Yangshuo is to integrate the new with the old, paying homage to the unique history of these heritage buildings. The design recover an old sugar mill into a hotel resort in the mountainous region of Yangshuo County in South Central China.

Comprising a series of new and repurposed buildings, the Alila Yangshuo hotel incorporates the surrounding landscape by way of open spaces and water features like a pool and a large reflecting pond that act as a continuation of its site.
 
The mill was built in the 1960s and features several brick buildings, which now house the hotel’s common areas like reception, cafe, bar, a multipurpose hall, gallery, and library. These are arranged the aforementioned pond and a sunken plaza.

The main guestroom building features simple yet strong lines and a combination of local stone and bamboo in the perfect balance of hard and soft. Designed in harmony with the natural landscape, it creates the feel of exploring a karst cave and embraces nature’s mystery.

The project involved retaining and repurposing the existing structures and introducing new accommodation buildings that complement their industrial aesthetic.

Flanking the old mill are a pair of new blocks housing a variety of rooms and guest suites. These additions feature gabled forms and a material palette that references the existing architecture.
 
"We kept the profile of the new buildings as simple as possible to avoid unnecessary distraction to the old sugar mill caused by overly expressive geometry," said Vector Architects.
 
Pathways connect the volumes with outdoor features including the sunken plaza and a swimming pool positioned within the former loading area that extends out towards the river.

The larger building called the Sugar House Retreat contains rooms with private balconies at the rear that look out across the mountain scenery.

The two-storey Garden Townhouse accommodates a series of suites facing the old buildings and ponds. At the rear, the upper suites open onto a private terrace, while the ground-floor suites look onto a bamboo garden.

Perforated screens created by combining solid and hollow concrete blocks help to provide natural light and ventilation throughout the buildings and circulation areas.

Along the front of the Sugar House Retreat, these surfaces screen the building from the nearby road. This side of the building is given over to corridors and staircases that connect the different levels.

The circulation areas are intended as an extension of the paths that extend throughout the complex. They are punctuated by full-height voids that function as open-air lobbies providing access to various staircases.

These openings are intended to evoke caves found in the surrounding mountains and offer views of the adjacent cliff face. The central void contains a sculptural bamboo canopy that meanders down through the floors.

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Gong Dong, was born on Chinese New Year's Day 1972 (February 15), into an intellectual family in Beijing. His parents were professors. His father taught hydraulic engineering at Tsinghua University, and his mother was a chemist at Beijing Jiaotong University. His birth falls in a year marked by different events that will mark his generation: the death of Liang Sicheng, one of the key founders of Chinese architectural education, the historic visit of US President Richard Nixon and the announced return of Deng Xiaoping to the political scene.

His family surname "Dong" comes from Jinghai County in Tianjin, a place not far from Beijing, and if we look back his ancestors can be found in Hongtong County in Shanxi Province, in northern China. His name "Gong" refers to "power" in hydraulic engineering. In common usage, "Gong" also means "academic performance and achievement."

Gong Dong received Bachelor & Master of Architecture from Tsinghua University, followed by a diploma from the University of Illinois where he received the Master of Architecture. He also had an exchange experience at the Technical University of Munich. During his study in America, Gong Dong received several awards including the Excellence Award from the Steedman Fellowship International Architectural Design Competition, 2000; First Prize from the American Institute of Architects Chicago Chapter’s Student Design Competition,2001 and the Excellence Award from Malama Learning Centre International Architecture Design Competition,2002. Before establishing his practice he worked for Soloman Cordwell Buenz & Associates in Chicago, then at Richard Meier & Partners and Steven Holl Architects in New York.

VECTOR ARCHITECTS was founded in 2008, in Beijing. During seven years of practice, we have always believed that design needs to confront problems, and it should be the attitude an architect ought to possess. Instead of enforcing the architect's self-consciousness or following icons and superficial forms, a good design has to respect the existing environment with the support of logic and reason. The contemporary Chinese design industry today is rather blundering in that the rapid production and pursuit of landmarks in height, size and form have become mainstream.

Architects no longer devote their efforts to the fundamental and substantial truth of architecture. In this environment, the persistence of confronting problems remains essential and crucial. In every project, Vector Architects is devoted to discovering the unrevealing relationship and various possibilities in the existing context. Through their design, they create new perceptions and experiences, which are exclusive to each project. The sense of "being here" is uniquely established and reflected in the percipient's emotions and actions. Therefore, space, being the vessel of living, has formed an irreplaceable connection between place and experience. 

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Published on: December 8, 2017
Cite: "Vector Architects renovates an old sugar mill into Alila Yangshuo hotel" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/vector-architects-renovates-old-sugar-mill-alila-yangshuo-hotel> ISSN 1139-6415
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