Nanxun Blossom Hill Boutique Hotel

Posted in Projects on 5 June, 2017

Dariel Studio presents the serene interiors of the Nanxun Blossom Hill Boutique Hotel…

Qiushuli Blossom Hill is located in Nanxun, Huzhou and is known as ‘Hidden Book Town’. During the early republic of China, another well-known big ‘hidden book’ building was built by the richest person in Nanxun Town Liu Chenggan’s Jiayetang. In 1930, he built another villa and named it “Qiu Shu Li”.

Dariel Studio carefully renovated this ancient building, taking measures to ensure the preservation of its heritage. Inspired by the owner Liu Chenggan’s collecting book achievements, Dariel Studio extracted the design concept as ‘Hidden’ and used that sense of surprise to tell the story of Nanxun and Qiushuli village.

Hidden can be translated not only as Liu Chenggan’s achievements in collecting books, but also the subtle beauty hiding in the South China style gardens, and modern people’s desire of hiding in nature and getting rid of the pressure and worries of daily life.

The structure of the space itself has a unique beauty that mixes Shanghai’s streets and alleys with Suzhou’s traditional gardens. Guests will be impressed when they enter. The long paved path reminds us of the Shanghai streets and alleys. The western style building located in the centre of the compound and on the top are engraved four Chinese characters. The first two characters originate from the name of little streams passing through the Jiayetang (the hidden book building), while the latter two characters mirror the Chinese philosophy ‘the first-class seclusion is hiding in the market while the second level seclusion is hiding in the forest’, which exactly mirror Liu Cheng Gan’s state of mind. The Golden Toad on the gatehouse was Mr Liu’s silk business logo.

One of the most prosperous industries in Nanxun Town is silk, which made Liu Cheng Gan’s family the wealthiest. When designing the space, Dariel Studio skillfully combined elements of silk with the key concept ‘Hidden’ and applied this to the public space design. The vases and books on the background cabinets and flying table lamps add an element of mystery and jointly amplified the ‘Hidden’ charm. The knitted geometric-shaped silk screens divide the various functional spaces into different areas.

Silk is a key element in the restaurant’s decor. The blue and red fiery strips made from raw silk fly across the ceiling creating a fantastic visual scene for the guests.

‘Fishing, woodcutting, farming and scholar’ are four occupations in Chinese agricultural society. It describes ancient Chinese people’s basic lifestyle, while at the same time represents a lot of government officials retired life status. Lots of traditional paintings are themed around the values of ‘fishing, woodcutting, farming and scholar’ and showed how ancient people pursued the frugal yet contented pastoral lifestyle. Thomas Dariel drew inspiration from this cultural spirit and combined it with the garden features characteristic of South China. The theme of the guest rooms is defined as ‘Farming, Gardening and Fishing’ to correspond with the historic and cultural elements of the town. Thomas Dariel chose lively colours to match the three key themes: orange represents Farming land, green pairs with Gardening and ocean blue echoes the experience of Fishing. Designers attach great importance to detailing that relies heavily on the choice of materials and artworks. The orange series of guest rooms are decorated with bamboo weavings and paintings vividly depicting the local figures and life. A blue wall with an ocean wave pattern provides a sensation of being gently embraced by waves of water.

To reflect the local culture and traditional buildings, the original bricks, wood and engravings were preserved and restored. The partition boards are lively carved with traditional patterns representing “Fishing, woodcutting, farming and scholar”. The carving techniques are similar to Suzhou embroidery that is “dense yet sparse”.

Thomas Dariel, who likes to mix Chinese and French culture together, combines Chinese traditional culture with Western modern style perfectly in this project. The ceyladon green and ocean blue Lazy Susan coffee table integrate perfectly with the environment, and add humor and romance. The Little Eliah flying table lamps portray a French style of playfulness and freedom.