A new holiday resort presents 3 types of different airy structures that are adapted to three distinct programmatic zones: sitting, standing, and sleeping in an isolated oasis of Ningxia, China. 

Designed by Chinese architecture practice STUDIO QI, a new boutique hotel offers one-of-a-kind experience by watching the lush and calm environment and being watched from outside due to their transparent envelopes. 

The boutique hotel, called Stray Bird Boutique Hotel, was designed as a cutting-edge hotel and is located in one of the most magnificent places on earth: an isolated oasis encircled by both the Yellow River and Tengger Desert in CHINA’s Ningxia Autonomous Region. 

The hotel challenges to the traditional rammed-earth architectural typography, and represents itself in an ecological and airy structure. Stray Bird sits quietly in the blossom orchard, while gazing through the reeds; a green train runs slowly alongside the endless horizon of the desert. 

Covering a total of 400-square-metre area, 3 modules sit in the middle of the site and are divided into three distinct programmatic zones as: sitting, standing, and sleeping. 

"As a holiday resort place, Stray Bird focuses on conditions for relaxation and leisurely experiences. According to the definitions of spatial events and actions of the body, the program is divided into three zones" said STUDIO QI.

"Both sleeping and sitting are considered as the most desired experiences, which are placed at the corners of the module on opposite sides, and are surrounded by full-height glazing system and exposures to nature’s magnificence."

"At the same time, all practical uses are compartmentalized into a central area, which also makes internal circulation much more efficient," added the architects.

The hotel is situated only 10 meters from the Yellow River. The architects used pre-fabrication services as both design and construction strategy, providing varied solutions to most all the challenges and difficulties for building in rural, western China.

Taking transportation constraints and structural limitations, all into consideration, the design was finalized in modules of a 14m*4.5m steel frame format, with sophisticated interior details and finishes, along with a unique entrance deck and front-terrace. 

They implemented three-sided low-e glass curtain wall system for the structures, given that architecture is regarded as the medium between living conditions and the grandeur of nature.

"The design of each programmatic area emphasizes the sensibilities of space in both planar and sectional dimensions. The furniture is designed and arranged, according to the desired moment of events, and is best positioned to maximize visual paths to the outside," explained the firm. 

"Design operations seek for responsive, visual communication between the interior and the exterior, while architectural details are carefully depicted to make such experience effective."

Adding a rather playful perforated panel on the back wall of each architecture, placed for the purpose of semi-privacy, four on-site themes are thus effectively created, as pear trees, reeds, date trees, and stray birds. 

These pre-fabricated metal panels allow for the continual interactions between the inside and outside via light and shadows. It also adds a layer of ambiguity between the image and the object. 

Stray Bird Boutique Hotel invites the Yellow River and desert into the space by the interplay of transparency. It blurs the boundaries between architecture and nature, while interrogating the traditional means of construction and the separations rendered by layers of solid walls. 

For Stray Bird, the absence of structure and material is fashioned for the appreciation of the grand landscape. The architecture is now filled and imbued with light and air.

Site plan

Hotel's 3 modules for different program zones

Site relation

Site section

Perspective section

Project facts

Project name: Stray Bird Boutique Hotel

Architects: STUDIO QI

Location: Yellow River, Zhongwei, Ningxia, China

Architect-in-Charge: Shanshan Qi

Design team: Mengfan Zhou, Yuting Zhao, Ping Yang

Project year: 2019

All images © Qingshan Wu

> via STUDIO QI