Yanyu Hotel is one of a series of rural retreats siting in the heartland of Mount Meng, a beautiful National Park in Linyi, Shandong. Six groups of architects were invited to design a complex of guest houses, exploring modes of integrating architecture with nature in six scattered plots. reMIX’s assigned plot is the first found by entering the resort, it is well positioned and has a privileged view of the valley. The site is a narrow strip perpendicular to a rather steep slope, which has a 17-meters height difference between the highest and lowest point of the plot, and which is marked by few overlying large and broken rocks.

The program to be laid down consists of 4 guest rooms of 80 square meters, a reception and a restaurant serving the entire resort. The design decision was to divide the two types of activities into two clusters, the public positioned at the feet of the plot, close to the road and the private placed at higher levels. The public is defined by two stacked volumes twisted slightly in plan in order to avoid the rocks, meanwhile creating by such movement a terrace space and allowing two separate entrances, one to the reception and another to the restaurant. The reception volume is sunken under the natural slope, offering an intimately enclosed space while inviting hints of landscape elements to enter the interior by few selected openings. In contrast, the restaurant volume cantilevers over the rock, allowing a more direct interaction with the landscape. The design chose to preserve the natural landscape by minimizing the volumes extending above ground.

The private cluster is nested uphill to access a superior point of view over the valley. Each guest room has exactly the same footprint and volume but through operations of rotations and mirroring when combined they form a dynamic mass. Different operations of rotation allow each room to have a unique view towards the landscape as well as a private garden adapting to its immediate environment. The rooms have a 1.5-meter height difference to each other so that two of them can be stacked to reduce the total footprint while providing spaces for quietness, solitude and privacy. The curated landscape trail connects the public and private cluster and intertwines between the building and the landscape. While wandering between the programs, the journey uphill-downhill varies in spatial rhythm creating moments of surprise along the way.