A “Non-Regional” Design Experience:

Silver Linings Boutique Hotel, Zhuhai Village, Yixing County

Silver Linings Boutique Hotel is a renovation project in Bamboo Sea Village in Hufu Township, Yixing County, which is home to a well-known scenic spot in Jiangnan (South Yangtze River Area).

Different from the romantic perception most people have about country life on hillside, the village seems out of place in such picturesque surroundings. Only few of Jiangnan folk houses —traditional folk houses that used to be common in Jiangnan — are left.

The owners’ building is no exception. Many years ago, when it was first built, in order to get more floor area, the building was completed with a rather “unique” height-to-width ratio. Before the owners’ current commission, the building had undergone a massive expansion.

Architects need to step in and help the owners clarify their needs so that the task could be more focused. The key to the current renovation was then identified: to establish a premium resort among the disarray of the village. Renovation should not be a procrustean alteration against a pre-determined, idealistic image of spaces. Rather, renovation requires one to explore and feature fine properties of the original construction, while addressing the inconvenient ones.

Our design began with a study of the area’s layout. Architects had fences made from locally sourced bamboo wood and installed them onto the façade to disrupt the elevation’s continuity and to relieve the tension of the building closing up on a smaller front yard. Architects also put up an uninterrupted front wall with simple elements — a white streak on a rubble masonry, capped with bamboo-based composite slate. The wall clearly yet subtly sets the building apart from its surroundings. It is low enough to become an intimate space where village folks will come by to sit down and chat in the sun, as opposite to the former parking lot.

The load bearing brickwork in the construction offered little room for renovation, so any attempt to reshape atmosphere and experience in the stairwell must be done without structural change to the walls. Architects installed several bookshelves there and cladded the roof and bottom of the well with mirrors, creating an illusion of infinity where the bookshelves and stairs seem to continue forever, which has an effect of elongating the well.

Great emphasis was given to the individual identities of windows and hence the identities of different rooms. The original cookie-cutter windows and ill-conceived balconies were transformed into openings of various sizes to match different identities.

The depth of a room created by its balcony and the natural associations of bamboo and wood add a ceremonious touch to the act of looking out. The feeling is reinforced by the scales in different directions and the way light shines in and creates shadows in the room. The direction of a window can guide an occupant’s eyes. Window was given special emphasis in our design to highlight the difference of indoor and outdoor spaces and at the same time, exalt the moment it is opened: the change of light, the breeze, distant mountains against the infinite sky, different humidity, different smells … window is the medium that connects one with the external world.

The terrace at the north side of the building is not able to support anyone, due to the load bearing limit of the first-floor ceiling. To warn off customers, architects put up a fence inspired by Mei Ren Kao — a traditional bench-railing in Chinese gardens. architects also covered the terrace floor with a thick layer of sand and gravel and with a wooden grid. Among them and through the ceiling, a tree is growing freely.

In Jiangnan area, there is a traditional, cost-effective way of making plaster by mixing lime with straw or paper paste. During our work, architects floated the idea of replacing paper paste with bamboo shred after it was treated. Since bamboo shred is harder than straw and paper paste, architects were worried that the plaster might make the walls too rough and prove inconvenient in use. But after several experiments with artisans involved in the project, architects were able to decide on how thin and long the bamboo shreds should be and with what proportion to make the plaster elastic and strong enough, without being too rough. Compared to a pure white plaster, wall covered with the bamboo plaster feels soft and textured and provides a strong sense of local identity.

As part of a small-scale renovation project of a vernacular building, the design of the new Silver Linings Boutique Hotel was nothing ambitious and did not aspire to bring back the original look of countryside which is completely gone. The building shares some of the features of a typical country homestay hotel, including its small scale, its position in a countryside surroundings, and its owners being born and raised in the local village. But the building is also not that typical in that its shape does not fit in the popular perception of a “traditional countryside”. Among others, our work focused on three things: reshaping the relation of the building with its surroundings, responding to the expectations of the owners and their guests for accommodation, and adjusting and optimizing the building’s functions. The overall design followed a logic that is simple and clear, even conservative. But it made the remodeled building contract strikingly with the one before.

In dealing with vernacular buildings, it is believed that one must address regional and cultural identities. However, in this prosperous Jiangnan village where different kinds of architecture co-exist, incorporating the traditional and vernacular features directly into the design language will instead make the building outlandish. For this reason, much of our design for the Hotel seems “anti-homestay”. This is the hotel taking a stance in real countryside surroundings. It is also part of our attempt to find an alternative to conventional country hotel design.

Name: Silver Linings Boutique Hotel, Hufu Township, Yixing County

Designed by: One Take Architects

Architect: Li Hao

Client: Mr. and Mrs. Hu in Yixing County

Location: Yixing County, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, PRC

Floor Area: 1000 m²

Photo: Kang Wei

Time of Design: 2016-2017

Completion: 2018