Leisurely Mountain Life / Menjue Architecture

Curated by 韩爽 - HAN Shuang

Architects: Menjue Architecture
Area: 500 m²
Year: 2018
Photographs:Ming Chen

Wakened memory - Leisurely Mountain Life
Jiuhua Mountain is one of the four famous Buddhist mountains in China, with beautiful scenery and fresh air, and a large number of tourists every year, which is a typical national destination resort district. The project is located near the tower courtyard, the core scenic spot of Jiuhua Mountain. The whole terrain is a valley basin, with pond, bamboo forest, ancient trees and metassequoia growing in a natural state.

Original intention of the design
The predecessor of the project was an ordinary budget hotel with only tourists in the peak season, which was the norm of all budget hotels on the mountain at that time. The project side expects to make a destination resort boutique homestay driven by design. We hope to start from the regain of the beauty of daily life, to present a design capability able to be perceived from form to space. Edward Hopper once said, "there is a power in the routine ordinary things, which can be found only when we look long enough for it."

Internal tension
Through the three forms of reception room, guest room and dining room, the whole of the building combines into its functional properties. The route into the hotel is limited by the site conditions, so we dug out an opportunity to do a narrative stay experience, the curiosity aroused all the way from the parking lot, stone steps, woods, tea garden, flagging and pond, will be satisfied in the final contact with the space.

Leisurely Mountain Life / Menjue Architecture - Beam, Windows — © Ming Chen

Leisurely Mountain Life / Menjue Architecture - Windows — © Ming Chen

Upon entering the guest room, the interior vertical orientation is designed into two spaces: the horizontal direction is defined by the function of two individual blocks, generating an inner form with tension; Tea room, leisure area, washing area, bedroom area, meditation area generate the field. While roaming in these spaces, walking to the ground, stepping up the steps, climbing the stairs, leaning on the sofa, looking up at the scenery outside the glass, opening the wooden window, sitting or standing to produce intimate contacts, at the moment of stop, a violent sentimental atmosphere is produced from the interior.

The underlying archaic power
Designing is a creative conduct. We hope to find a new approach in every detail. When selecting materials, we hope the building can respond to the outside world, to present a particular function, to be able to witness the reality of the past life, and to absorb the traces of life.

Into the tea room area on the first floor of the guest room, the interior is wrapped in wood veneer, retaining a piece of glass as a medium for internal and external contact. When the feet on the tatami, sitting cross-legged on a futon, boiling tea, scenery, sunshine, dew, all in sight, opening the window, the breeze, the spatial perception that we expect is already present. Today, it has become a favorite place for guests to stay.

The facade language of the building is the volume of cement, the remains of residential terracotta, rammed earth and bamboos, daily materials. We choose waste stone as stepping stones, firebrick as ground, staircases of solid wood and steel, copper - covered wooden door, transparent sunshine board, the combination of these materials and forms creates a whole. When the body is in close contact with these materials, what we want our guests to have is a state of mind and raw power that can talk to the current situation.