Cool Design News

Cool Design News featuring great design, architecture, fashion, graphics and innovation from across the globe.

 
Zenstay Hotel

Zenstay

Zenstay is a boutique hotel on Dongji Island in Zhoushan, China. The project is a reconstruction of an original stone house on a hillside. Local dwelling forms and natural textures guided the design. The original stone and timber structure is preserved, and new white blocks connect the separated public spaces. An atrium and a staircase link the old and the new parts. Materials include concrete, local ashlar, old larch wood, used grey tiles and stucco. The hotel holds nine sea view guest rooms, a restaurant, a bar, a conference room and a viewing platform.

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Folding Garden Community Center

Folding Garden

Folding Garden is a community center located in Beijing, China. A continuous wall crosses the site in a linear and zigzag path, shaping the garden and also serving as the supporting structure. The result is a coherent indoor space without columns. A corridor running from north to south links three courtyards along a central axis. The building is covered with flowing brickwork that recalls a mountain in a forest. Sunken courtyards add usable space on a compact plot. The total land area is 6421 square meters and the construction area is 1403 square meters.

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The Lesser Polish Eaves Cottage Residential Architecture

The Lesser Polish Eaves Cottage

The Lesser Polish Eaves Cottage is a house which was inspired by the Polish wooden arcade architecture. The search for regional features characteristic for single-family housing led designer to discover forgotten traditional eaves houses of the region. The design was created in order to accommodate a 4-person family space, located on the unusual long and narrow plot of irregular shape. There were separated as many as five different levels, legally falling within the definition of a two-story building.

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Banyan Tree Xianju Resort Hotel

Banyan Tree Xianju Resort

Banyan Tree Xianju Resort is a hotel located at the east foot of Wujia Mountain in Xianju County, Zhejiang Province, China. The design follows the complex terrain of the former Lishan Village site. Public areas are placed in the lower zone beside an old stone wall, and guest rooms are set above them in the form of a small settlement. An all-glass facade opens the public spaces to the surrounding landscape. Stones from the old parapet of the former village were reused as a finish for the base. The buildings combine traditional mountain village forms with modern elements.

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Yida Creation City Exhibition Center

Yida Creation City

Yida Creation City is an urban exhibition center built as the first project of a science and technology new town base in Zhengzhou, China. The design concept is floating polysilicon, expressed as a simple polyhedron form that refers to the information technology industry. The floating volume is wrapped in a milky white U-shaped glass curtain wall. The first floor holds exhibition and reception space, the second floor a conference and roadshow hall, and the third floor shared offices. The floating volume also links the central park and the civic park into one park system.

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Qingdao Pingdu Olympic Center Sport Venue

Qingdao Pingdu Olympic Center

Qingdao Pingdu Olympic Center is a sports complex built in Pingdu, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. The complex holds a stadium with 15,000 seats, a basketball hall with 7,000 seats and a natatorium with 1,500 seats. The basketball hall and the swimming pool are combined into one building, which reduces the difference in scale between the volumes and saves land for squares and internal roads. Core spaces and auxiliary spaces are separated, so structural spans are shorter and construction is simpler. The plan also supports flexible daily use after events.

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