Vector Architects’ Forest Spa Channels Bond-Worthy Sophistication in China’s Mountains.

The Wulingshan Eye Stone Spring by Vector Architects sits pensive amongst the poplar trees in the forests of Wuling Mountain, China. It could easily be mistaken for the set of a Tarkovsky film or a hideout for Mr. Bond himself, with its industrial stature and subtle slicing into surroundings. Its external envelope is made up of a tidy composition of grids and circular interventions, the bush-hammered concrete exterior suggesting something more abrasive than what is being presented. The structure establishes new relationships between the surrounding natural elements with apparent ease.

What’s more, the building is lifted from the ground by 10 columns, ensuring its tidy vertical arrangement doesn’t impose on the natural surroundings in any significant way. It truly is all about highlighting the natural landscape, as we see vast sections of glazing cut through the centre of the structure and create a portal through to the other side, giving way to the illusion that the natural landscape exists within the building and revealing the second-floor relaxation lounge.

1960s Industrial Sugar Mill Transformed into Yangshuo Sugar House Luxury Hotel by Vector Architects.

Can we take a moment to appreciate just how breathtaking this project is? The sheer scale alone is extraordinary, but paired with a dramatic landscape and historically thoughtful architecture, and we are in for a treat!

Once inside, an integrated teak box welcomes guests through the reception, the desk made up out of golden cylinders, paying homage to the external chimney-like structures and foreshadowing the heightened volumes evident throughout. This teak insert houses not only the reception desk, but also the storage lockers and shower facilities associated with the springs. Here, we see the repeat annular pattern in the porthole-like windows dotted throughout.

The floorplates shift from the organised to the organic, the second floor relaxation lounge connecting visitors horizontally to the tree-filled landscape outside, the third encouraging a vertical connection through several cylindrical lightwells opening up to the sky. The relaxation lounge is decidedly zen in its stained timber flooring and hues of blue introduced through the rectangular furnishings, all elevated by the golden flats of the lamps inserted between the lounges. Down below, it’s near impossible to miss the Zumthor-esque quality these springs possess, a clear homage to both Thermal Vals in its harnessing of silence through materiality, as well as the Bruder Klaus chapel in its considered dispersion of light.

Polished concrete curved hallways snake around the cylindrical light wells and lead to the body of water that is the spring, the light drawn from the wells bouncing and reflecting off of the burnished walls. Here, strips of glazing slice through the dense concrete walls and allow a window out to the adjacent cliffs, once again connecting the visitors to nature and allowing them to submerge themselves in the springs.

Some lightwells house post-spring showers, giving the illusion of rain from above. It’s safe to say that if James Bond were to need a spa day (and let’s face it, he definitely would), this would be the one he’d frequent.

Changjiang Art Museum in Taiyuan by Vector Architects.

An outdoor staircase, public footbridge and angled window openings form angular shapes across the otherwise solid, pale brick volume that is the Changjiang Art Museum designed by Vector Architects.

[Images and drawings courtesy of Vector Architects. Photography by Liu Guowei and Tian Fangfang.]