Linzhi Artel Poly by L&A Design
Hotels and Resorts / Hotels and Resorts / China / Built in 2017 /
www.aoya-hk.com
A Regional Culture Trip — Linzhi Artel Poly, Nyingchi, Tibet
The project is built along Sichuan-Tibet Highway which is the only to Lhasa, in Lulang Town, Nyingchi, Tibet, adjacent to Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, nestled in diversified landforms of glaciers, alpine valleys, meadows, forests, rivers and lakes. As the corresponding projects for building the tourist town, it is also an important local tourist facility.
Native Landscape Well-integrated
The ethereal plateau featured southeastern Tibet creates special topography with 10m height difference. On the basis of respecting the native style, how to take advantages of the height difference to create a harmonious and rich landscape space is the first challenge.
The design team well applied this special topography with 10m height difference, to integrate it into constructing series layered hospitable spaces for the project. Space transformation is playing vividly within mysterious regional air and fascinated natural surroundings. Tibetan buildings are often built following the layered terrain, as a result, large terraces are usually formed for outdoor activities or constructed as viewing platforms. It is well adopted into the construction of mountain-viewing platform in the hotel lobby. The platform with existed height difference endows it a glorious panoramic vision to enjoy the fascinated natural surroundings.
Native Spirits Permeated
Geographically, Nyingchi is a multicultural and multi-ethnic symbiotic place where the agricultural culture from Yellow River and Yangtze River Basins, nomadic culture from the northern prairies in China, desert oasis culture from Central Asia and South Indian Culture coexist, which made it particularly important to demonstrate the special humanistic environment.
Tibetan ethnic elements, such as bonfire, lotus throne, prayer wheel and shrine are also perfectly drawn into the project design. The drop-off area in the entrance is built as Holy Lotus Square, the lotus fountain waterscape set in the center. Facing to the hotel gate, shrine-featured wall is constructed by local stone. Native religious air filled entrance plaza plays well interaction with wooded mountains in the distance, showing the locals’ instinctive worship to water and fire. The hotel inner court is designed as series directional sequential spaces with exquisite wall decorations with rich local religious and ethnic elements such as Tibetan wall lamps and prayer wheels. Strong native cultural ambience is filled in to make visitors know and feel Nyingchi better.
A campfire plaza is set in the public space of guest-room area. It is built to symbolize the concept “Mandala”, a kind of religious centralism in Tibetan Buddhism, where is also regarded as a sacred place for people to communicate with the gods. The plaza is an important functional space for celebrations and gatherings in the hotel. Visitors and native Tibetans could do friendly and cheerful interaction here, praying for a good future together.
Low Impact Development
The design team insisted on low-impact development and low-cost construction in the whole project.
The keynote of this project is to avoid overmuch construction, to reduce engineering quantity, to create best viewpoint for the scenery, to control landscape nodes and to adopt local materials and techniques.
A large number of local slate, cobblestones, wood are used in the landscape architecture with traditional craftsmanship and modern techniques. The rough-surfaced local shale and bluestone are widely used in paving the entrance road, the main path, the secondary path and the drop-off plaza; native cobblestones are selected to pave guest-meeting path, within which local characteristics are filled. Concrete pavement is partially adopted with surface rough-hewing techniques to simulate the effect of bluestone pavement, so as to reduce ecological damage by stone mining. Scraps of woodwork are fully utilized for the construction of fences in the villa area of the hotel. Native tree species are widely planted to effectively reduce planting cost. 40 RMB/kg economically priced wild-plant varieties, such as Cynodon dactylon and Cosmos bipinnata, are extensively sowed to echo with Tibetan meadow landscape and give full respect to the local ecology.
Evaluation and Benefits
Regional cultural features are naturally permeated into the project by modern techniques, local materials and technologies of Tibetan construction with low-cost and low-impact development. Also, traditional local elements are well integrated, giving visitors a peaceful, holy and cozy vacation on plateau lakeside. Localized material adoption drives the development of local economy, also makes construction costs effectively reduced. Linzhi Artel Poly becomes a successful practice and a model project for the local low-impact construction, also becomes a profound and mysterious signifier for visitors.
Project category: Hospitality
Role of the entrant in the project: Landscape Design
Other designers involved in the design of landscape:
Design Director: Li Baozhang
Project Manager: Hu Guangqiang
Leading Designer: Hu Naizhong
Landscape Architect: Jin Jieqin
Landscape Architect: Yang Yaxuan
Landscape Architect: Zhou Shaonan
Planting Design: Luo Min
Project location: Lulang Town, Nyingchi, Tibet, China
Design year: 2014
Year Built: 2017
