Nothing Superfluous: Sky Yard Hotel by Domain Architects.

Turning the conventional hotel design model on its head, Shanghai-based Domain Architects’ Sky Yards focuses on the individual room, reconstructing the disadvantages of the site into an outstanding and unique experience.

Although surrounded by unfinished industrial and developing construction sites, the architects took advantage of the views facing Taihang Mountains in northern China.

Avoiding the design of boxes and maximising openings of the mountain range on site, Domain Architects focused on the views above eye level while the lower exterior vistas are purposefully blocked. In addition, the gap in each private balcony is lifted to focus on the sky and the mountains, nostalgic of a traditional Chinese garden experience by concealing and revealing.

Sky Yards Hotel consists of 48 rooms, a restaurant, banquet hall, swimming pool and extra space reserved for future development and expansion. “Using a very simple and consistent method, we invented a “room + micro-yard” model for hotel design and transformed the disadvantage of the site into a pleasantly unfamiliar and distinctive experience”, the architects explain.

Bare finishings and a neutral palette, suggestive of a Scandinavian aesthetic, adorn the hotel rooms. Each one is also fitted with floor-to-ceiling glass doors that lead out to the private micro courtyard, decorated with a free-standing bath and reminiscent of a tranquil sanctuary. The undulating façade of the hotel interacts with natural sunlight, projecting reflections and shadows that dance in the room throughout the day.

Constructed to be elevated off the ground by half a floor, the street level provides extra circulation for people and cars entering the hotel. Additionally, the lawn is raised to elevate the entrance while echoing the views of the mountain ranges in the distance. On the ground floor, large apertures frame the hotel’s front yard and the ranges behind.

The ‘lifting’ concept reverberates throughout the interiors as well. There is a noticeable elevation of elements guiding the eye upwards from the room signage to the counter in the restaurant, the public bathrooms, and the drawer handles in the private rooms.

Located in a small rural town in China, Sky Yards Hotel is free of superfluous visual elements. Championing simplicity and emphasising a personal user experience, Domain Architects explore a new hotel design typology where all elements are valued and celebrated.

Related: Buda Hotel Chengdu by Archetype Design Organization.

[Images courtesy of Domain Architects. Photography by Chao Zhang.]