Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel: designed around the concept of "sojourn"
genarchitects
Hospitality
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Completed
In Qinhuangdao, a coastal tourist destination, stands Aranya, a vast community designed around the concept of "sojourn." At Aranya, we reconfigured the originally planned large complex-intended to house both hotel and apartment units as a single building-into Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel and another apartment building, creating three plazas with distinct architectural entities and unique atmospheres. As a knowledge-based community hub, the hotel's first and second floors were designed as public activity areas by refining scale, proportion, circulation, and the interior-exterior interface. We optimized guest room space with a square plan, alternating two spans of width in the layout's depth. This U-shaped arrangement maximizes space efficiency and provides varied views.
The hotel is located at the center of the community's public activity space. As an indoor area connected to the square, the hotel's first and second floors are dedicated to public functions—forming a continuous, open space accessible from all directions. We employed a "box in box" spatial organization method, enhancing the hotel's role as a highly flexible community lounge. The uneven texture of light-colored concrete bricks subtly varies the facade facing the main square, while the slight curvature design and unique room layouts at the top corners weaken the sense of repetition of guest rooms on the main facade facing the square, allowing the building to play a role akin to a "castle tower" in the community center.
The hotel is located in the central hub of a coastal resort community near Beijing. The two-story Forum space opens southward onto a courtyard, with retail and gallery spaces on the other three sides, hosting gatherings, cultural lectures, concerts, and exhibitions. As a transition between the hotel and the plaza, this ground floor space fosters a vibrant public atmosphere, facilitating easy access from all sides. Facing the main plaza, the hotel's facade boasts a rustic texture with cement bricks that exhibit subtle tonal variations. By adjusting brick sizes and mortar joints, we aim to seamlessly blend these materials to resemble a single limestone block. The first and second-floor lobbies feature exposed raw concrete frameworks, evoking a warm ambiance akin to wooden architecture with mineral pigments and wooden formwork. The hotel has 36 guest rooms in a U-shape configuration, with some facing the inner courtyard and others overlooking the plaza, leading to diverse room layouts. Sea-view rooms feature balconies for distant views, while inward-facing rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows that open. Catering to traveling creators, the guest rooms evoke a cozy home study ambiance. We adopted a square plan to optimize comfort in limited space and achieve a comfortable spatial ratio. Initially, we divided the width into two spans and alternated their placement in the depth direction. The larger span includes a desk and bathroom, while the smaller span has a bed and balcony.
As the operational team of the Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel, we see this establishment not just as a hotel, but as a manifestation of our vision for an ideal lifestyle. Inspired by Hemingway's study, the hotel design embodies art and sustainable living. Warm limestone, concrete bricks, and wood-grain concrete harmonize for comfort and order. Cooperating with genarchitects enables us to create a serene, fulfilling space, reflecting our commitment to sustainable, artistic living.
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Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel
SU Shengliang
The hotel located in the community public activity area facing the square
SU Shengliang
Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel as evening lights begin
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Looking from the leisure square to the main square
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The connection between the hotel's ground floor and the plaza creates a sense of community-facing publicness
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The solid structure is formed by the integration of cement bricks and grey joints on the hotel's exterior walls
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The hotel's southern courtyard
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The exposed ribbed beams seamlessly unite the gallery and the lobby into one cohesive space
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The use of mineral pigments and wooden panels gives the concrete framework a warm wooden feel
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The hotel's two-story high forum space opens up to the courtyard on the south side
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View of the main square from the guest room
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The guest room type D features a 4.5-meter-high loft living space positioned at the corner
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Details of the concrete beams and columns
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Site plan
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First floor plan of the Mi Casa Su Casa club Hotel
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Second floor plan of the Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel
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Thrid floor plan of the Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel
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Fourth floor plan of the Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel
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Cross section of the Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel
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Diagram of hotel room type distribution
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Axonometric diagram of hotel room type
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Detail of the Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel
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Buildings and external open spaces of Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel
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Sketch
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Rendering of the hotel as seen from the main square
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Redering of hotel's forum Space
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Redering of hotel's forum space facing to the southern yard
Aranya, Qinhuangdao
China
Aranya
07/2023
3889 sq. m
947,800.00 €
FAN Beilei, XUE Zhe, KONG Rui
Scheme Design Team: WANG Yushan, XUE Jun, LIU Yujie, XIAO Xinyu, ZHU Mingxi, QIAN Jia, ZHANG Qiuyan, ZHANG Yiling, QIU Shenglu, ZANG Min, ZHANG Jiaxin, ZHU Lingyun, PANG Yinlei, CHEN Xiaofan, ZHANG Jiayu Detailed Design Team: XUE Jun, WANG Shiyu, HUANG Wei, WANG Xin, ZHAO Nan, HU Jizhang, CHEN Xi, REN Qingyu Site Architects: WANG Shiyu, WANG Xin, CHEN Xi, HU Jizhang, LI Jing
Civil Construction: Changli Construction Engineering Co.,Ltd. Interior Construction: Yuyi Decoration Engineering Concrete Protectant Construction: Tongyi Architectural Technic
Structural Engineering: ZHANG Zhun, HU Xiaojie / AND Office MEP Engineering: LIANG Ming, PAN Shen, WAN Huajun, LIU Jianping / SGIDI Lighting Design: PANG Lei / Lumia Lighting Design, WANG Xian / DLX Lighting Design Facade Design: BRM Facade Fair-faced Concrete Consultant: Du Jie / Suzao Construction Stone Consultant: JIANG Jun / Jinmifeng Stone Local Design Institute: Dalian Institute of Architectural Design&Research Co.,Ltd
Metal Materials: Shiyaozhigong Supplier of Terrazzo Series: Houxiang Door and Window System: Rilang Doors and Windows Stucco: OIKOS
SU Shengliang
Curriculum
genarchitects, founded in 2013 under the leadership of three principals, Fan Beilei, Kong Rui and Xue Zhe, engages in comprehensive urban and architectural design work.
Their projects are featured in Architectural Journal, T+A, World Architecture, as well as publications by Thames & Hudson Press and Birkhäuser. They've received The Plan Award, German Iconic Awards' "Best of Best", and accolades from AIA Shanghai and WAF Award. They've exhibited at Venice Architecture Biennale, Harvard GSD, and Sino-Europe Invitational and Contemporary Chinese Architecture exhibitions.
The principals also contribute to academia, serving as visiting lecturers at CAUP, Tongji University, and as guests and critics at Southeast University, Tianjin University, Central Academy of Fine Arts. They are sought-after speakers, delivering lectures at institutions including Harvard GSD, University of Queensland, Nanjing University, and University of Hong Kong Shanghai Study Center.
