A new hotel by PEI Architects offers a sensitive design response and a memorable experience for visitors to one of China’s most famous living architectural museums, the city of Fuzhou’s historic “Three Lanes and Seven Alleys” area.

The new courtyard hotel is hailed as a “destination landmark” for its contextual design that draws people in to explore an innovative interpretation of the history and culture that permeates the Sanfang Qixiang district, often dubbed the “Beverly Hills of imperial China” for its famous and wealthy denizens.

Surrounded by Ming and Qing dynasty landmarks and national monuments, including the historic residences of many notable figures, the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys. Guanglufang Hotel creates a private, planted courtyard with a lagoon and lush landscape ringed by reception buildings and villas, all with dedicated gardens. A sunken garden within — and a replica opera house — become the focal points and highlights for guests.

“Our design brings vestiges of iconic cultural landmarks from Fuzhou’s history directly into the site with homages to the historic Dao Nan Library, reimagined as an important function room, and a reinterpreted Opera House setting for daily performances of traditional Chinese Opera,” says Toh Tsun Lim, AIA, partner with PEI Architects. “In addition, our courtyard villas exemplify the natural beauty of archetypal Fuzhou courtyard house living by providing two signature courtyards and an interior light well for all guests.”   

About the Hotel Architecture 

With a wide portfolio of hospitality works — from the Peace Hotel concept in Shanghai to Beijing’s Park Hyatt Penthouse to Starwood’s Grand Mansion in Nanjing — PEI Architects is known for infusing iconic architectural statements with local and cultural resonance, even when creating ultra-luxury accommodations. 

In Fuzhou’s historic Three Lanes and Seven Alleys district, where preservation and conservation concerns are paramount, PEI’s design team worked with their client Fuzhou Alleyway Hotel Co., Ltd., to craft this major departure from the bulky, intrusive hotel blocks that ring the historic zone. Even at 344,000 square feet, the hotel’s courtyard hotel concept with low-rise villas reduces the overall building density and site coverage on their property, bringing extensive green space and exotic garden specimens that recall — and even directly link the hotel to — the adjacent Guanglu Park. A physical and visual continuation of Guanglu Park’s waters and stone, the hotel courtyard creates a local oasis and a tribute to the city’s traditions dating back hundreds of years.

Yet the rhythmic, visually diverse work is decidedly modern in terms of comfort, convenience, sustainability and wellness. Cast-in-place concrete structures offer a contemporary interpretation of the monolithic, monochromatic white and black walls of the surrounding courtyard houses in the Sanfang Qixiang district, adds PEI’s Lim. The careful concrete finishes recall the smooth, monolithic firewall of traditional Fuzhou architecture, becoming a unifying material for this site. Even the traditional spatial arrangement of the courtyard house is captured in PEI Architects’ reception building entry sequence, where guests enter into the site through a series of alternating interior and exterior spaces along an axial plan.  

The guestrooms and shared spaces, including a restaurant and socializing zones, also recall some of the traditions of this storied district in novel and modern palettes. The rich interiors offer guests an experience worthy of Fuzhou, a “southern gem and capital of Maritime Silk Road,” as China Daily writes.