Qinyong Primary School Hotel
Qinyong Primary School Hotel is located in Qinyong Village, southeastern Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. Built largely from local brown granite, the village consists of uniform row houses constructed under the commune system, presenting a landscape structure markedly different from that of traditional clan-based villages. Public buildings such as the primary school, canteen, guest house, and auditorium were built with the same material, bearing witness to a fervent period of collectivism.
The primary school sits on a raised platform at the northernmost end of the village, facing south. It consists of a main teaching building and an auxiliary building. The large platform to the south originally served as the school playground. From this elevated ground, one can overlook the entire village, where long bands of grey-tiled roofs resemble a piece of land art, extending toward the foot of the adjacent mountain.
In the renovation of the main building, an elevated platform running through the rooms and corridors became a key design strategy. Concealing the pipelines within the platform avoids drilling through the existing granite load-bearing walls. At the same time, the slightly reduced ceiling height gives the former classrooms a more intimate scale suited to hotel rooms. With the mechanical and electrical systems integrated into the platform, the interior layout gains greater flexibility, allowing standard classroom modules to be transformed into varied guest-room arrangements through built-in elements.
These interior elements are organized comprehensively on the platform. Their orientation and spatial relationships vary from floor to floor, responding to specific functional needs and window positions. Replacing movable furniture with built-in elements is not merely a matter of preference; under a limited budget, it also avoids the generic “Instagram-style” atmosphere produced by ready-made online furniture.
Taking advantage of the structural redundancy of the original building, a canteen is added to the rooftop of the auxiliary building. The addition adopts a lightweight steel structure welded from 5 × 5 cm square steel rods. The choice of material and dimension is carefully optimized according to both construction conditions and design intentions.
A staircase is added to the northern side of the auxiliary building, linking the vertical circulation and creating an opportunity to reorganize the relationship between interior and exterior spaces. Openings placed in different directions and at various heights frame shifting views, enriching the visitors’ spatial experience.
Throughout the project, site-made woodwork is applied across scales ranging from furniture to entire rooms. It gives the interior a sense of continuous enclosure while introducing a subtle feeling of improvisation. These specific spatial moments create a sense of defamiliarization, allowing visitors to step outside the continuous flow of everyday familiarity.
CREDITS
Architectural and Interior Design: Atelier XUK
Architects in Charge: LIU Kenan, ZHANG Xu
Design Team: WANG Yekai, HUANG Jin, CAI Wuyi,HUANG Zirui,LIU Bolun,GU Chao,HE Di
Structural Design: MIAO Jianbo,CHEN Tong
MEP Design: YU Xiaoming
