urbanus: maillen hotel and apartment

‘maillen hotel and apartment’ by urbanus, shenzhen, china image © wu qiwei all images courtesy of urbanus

shenzhen and beijing-based firm urbanus have recently completed the ‘maillen hotel and apartment’, a residential complex and hotel accommodation positioned at the base of a hill in shekou within shenzhen, china. contained within a zigzagged footprint, over 25,000 square meters of usable interior space is constructed upon a 13,000 square meter site. returning to the fundamental ideals within chinese living as expressed in the saying ‘hills outside hills, and gardens inside gardens’, the continuous and repeating spaces and form evokes the imagery found in traditional villages and mountainous landscapes. accessed through intermittent vertical breaks, the relationships between nature and construct are blurred as dwellers enter vegetated courtyards.

growing out of the terraced and sloped landscape, the attached building volumes feature are placed at angles with rooflines which seamlessly transition from one volume to the next. each unit offers views to smaller courts with ponds, and gardens with bamboo, pine and plum blossoms. walkways pass over the water to link each area.

vegetated courtyards image © wu qiwei

pathways cross over ponds and pass gardens image © wu qiwei

angled roofline connects and continues from one volume to the next image © wu qiwei

(left) aerial view of lifted volume (right) pathway through internal courtyard images © wu qiwei

hotel image © wu qiwei

aerial view of the complex and surrounding context image © wu qiwei

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project info:

location: shekou, shenzhen, china site: 13.198 hec floor area: 25,142 sq.m design period: 2006-2007 construction period: 2007 client: shenzhen china merchants real-estates co., ltd