Project
Sky Yards Hotel

Nomination 
Best Project of Public Building or Facility

About the project
Surrounded by suspended construction site, wasted land and shabby factories, this 48-room hotel in a small town is definitely not blessed with a beautiful site. Fortunately, Taihang Mountain is visible from two major sides.
Usually a hotel room would be designed as an outward box to maximize the view. As a consequence, the hotel building would be a collection of boxes. We rejected this conventional model and reinvented the actual experience in a typical unit:
1. Block the exterior view below eye-level.
2. Enlarge the opening to bring in more light and wind.
3. Withdraw the glass enclosure inward to create a micro courtyard with a beautiful, scroll-like view of the sky and the mountain far away.
Vary in size and room type, the units pile up to form the volume of the hotel. The result also evokes the gables in nearby villages or the outline of the mountain.

Location
Xiuwu County, Henan Province, China

Project created in
2020

More project images
http://domain-architects.com/project/1

Additional information
http://domain-architects.com/project/4

Applicant and authors of the project
Domain Architects is a Shanghai-based studio led by Xiaomeng Xu. Our practice strives to reform the spatial experience with innovative site strategy.
We consider user experience as the core of all designs, and believe every site has its potential to generate unique spatial experience. By carefully rethinking conventional models, we keep going back to the original nature of sites and programs to reinvent the logic and quality of spaces.

Other participants
Partner: Xiaomeng Xu