360-Metre Raised Walkway Binds Dayun Landison Manor Hotel

Chinese studios HB Architects and Nature Times Art have completed Dayun Landison Manor, a hotel in Jiashan, China, whose buildings are tied together by a 360-metre-long raised walkway.

The hotel occupies the elongated site of a demolished village, stretching 360 metres from east to west. Its width reaches a maximum of 54 metres at the middle and narrows to 21 metres at either end.

Numerous buildings form the complex, all connected by a walkway raised 4.9 metres above the ground. According to the studios, this horizontal layout nods to the site's history and attempts to recreate a village-like neighbourhood.

"We fictionalised a village to continue the functional essence of 'dwelling'," HB Architects and Nature Times Art told Dezeen.

The raised guest rooms also reference local housing, which is often supported on pilotis. The designers deliberately hid the supporting columns, however, to emphasise the visual dominance of the 1.1-metre-thick slab that runs through the site.

The entrance opens into a courtyard with a lake at its centre and a "water curtain" falling from the surrounding walkway. Guests climb stairs to the raised walkway, which loops around courtyards and gardens on its way to the rooms. A large pool occupies the tip of the raised platform at one end.

"The building offers more than just one kind of experience," the studios said. "You have to walk through it yourself to really get it."

While guest rooms sit in blocks surrounding the raised walkway, more functional spaces sit below the slab. The upper blocks are painted earthy yellow; the lower floor and walkways are terracotta red, referencing the surrounding landscape.

"We deliberately chose to avoid white buildings," said HB Architects and Nature Times Art. "The colours we use in this building show how we think about nature."

"The main colours relate to our design keywords — 'earth' or 'nature'," they added.

Courtyards punctuate the complex, allowing nature to permeate throughout the building.

HB Architects and Nature Times Art are architecture and interior practices based in Shenzhen. The client is Jiashan Dayun Cultural Tourism Development Co., with He Bin and Lai Erxun of HB Architects and Wei Jinjing of Nature Times Art serving as principal architects. The design team includes Zhou Yuxin, Li Wenjing, Liu Ming, Shi Lingli and Fang Xuecen. Guowei Liu photographed the project.

The project joins a run of Chinese hotel conversions and completions: WATG and Wimberly Interiors have finished a boutique hotel in Wuxi's Dangkou Ancient Town, and BLUE Architecture Studio has turned a cluster of new and old buildings in Yangzhou into a hotel complex.