Nestled among the serene bamboo forests and majestic mountains of Dachangping, China, the Floating Hotel, designed by Amsterdam studio More Architecture, stands as a testament to harmonizing with nature. With its innovative design featuring a sizeable zigzagging roof, this hotel offers guests an immersive experience, inviting them to connect deeply with the surrounding landscape.
Location and Design
Located in the rural Anji region, the Floating Hotel boasts 18 rooms, each meticulously crafted to seamlessly integrate guests into their natural surroundings. Perched atop a grid of steel columns, the hotel's open ground floor features a tranquil swimming pool and administrative spaces designed to blend effortlessly with the environment.
(Photo: Kris Provoost)
Inspiration and Concept
Inspired by the client's vision of a building "floating above the bamboo," More Architecture elevated the hotel above the mountains, allowing the landscape to flow uninterrupted. Partner Daan Roggeveen explains, "We wanted to create a large roof that brings people together, and allows them to enjoy the wonderful surroundings in which the hotel is set."
The hotel offers three distinct room types, each offering unique orientations and relationships with the landscape. "Corridor" rooms boast expansive views over one side of the landscape, while "gallery" rooms provide narrower, dual-aspect views. Suites at either end of the plan offer panoramic views in two directions, ensuring guests are constantly connected to the breathtaking scenery. All rooms feature full-height glazing framed in white metal, seamlessly blending indoor and outdoor spaces. Large doors open onto wood-decked terraces that wrap around the entire perimeter, inviting guests to immerse themselves in the natural beauty that surrounds them.
(Photo: Kris Provoost)
Aesthetic and Material Choices
On the top floor, amenities such as a yoga room, breakfast space, and restaurant are housed in separate glazed blocks, encouraging visitors to interact with the outdoors as they move between facilities. The zigzagging roof, clad internally with thin wooden planks, adds to the hotel's unique aesthetic, complemented by white walls and pale wood paneling.
The ground floor rooms, finished in contrasting stone cladding, exude a sense of warmth and tranquility, reminiscent of spaces "carved out of the mountain." Carefully selected wood adorns the floors, ceilings, and room interiors, creating a cozy atmosphere. The hotel's furniture, in combination with the onsite furniture design and terrazzo finishing, gives charm to the hotel, married to the desks and bars, with a touch of the building's aesthetics.
The architecture of More's Floating Hotel shows that architecture and nature are not two estranged elements but rather natural partners with the mountains' peaceful surroundings, offering the guests seclusion from the hectic life they are used to. Profiting from a very inspired design approach and the precise determination to be a pioneer environmental hotel, this creative hotel becomes a benchmark similar to its hospitals in dramatic natural settings.
