Vector Architects, Hotel in Yangshuo, China

The mountainous Yangshuo Country in southern China has just seen the opening of the Alilo Yangshuo resort hotel complex designed by the Beijing-based firm Vector Architects. The project involved retaining and repurposing the installations of an old, 1960s sugar mill that was in disuse and introducing a cluster of new shed-like, gabled-masonry accommodation structures. The complex, which seeks to emphasize the connection between the preexisting and new elements, has been homogenized by the shared language of pitched roofs and the selection of materials that clearly refer to the former industrial architecture, such as the concrete used to form the lattices.