Text description provided by the architects. 1. Where the idea starts. The project is located at Shapotou, Zhongwei, Ningxia, a national nature reserve as well as a national AAAAA-rated scenic area on the southeast brink of Tengger Desert. This is the place to discover the desert, the Yellow River, high mountains and oases, the scenery full of the grand northwestern miracles and the delicate southern elegance. Here you can traverse Tengger Desert on camels or surf the sand dunes in an all-terrain, and immerse in the poetic sight of "a lonely column of smoke rising upright in the vast desert, and the sun setting round towards where the long river flows".
The desert is a unique component of nature, where the enormous temperature difference day and night, the vehement ultraviolet radiation, the bitterly savage sandstorms and the extremely dry weather make it a not very livable place. Without modern technologies, human beings can hardly survive there. Naturally, to build a hotel in the desert is a highly challenging attempt, and we all show our ultimate respect from the very beginning. The desert landscape, however, serves also as a source of infinite inspiration to me, for it exhibits a series of seemingly contradictory but fusing aspects: vast and mysterious, romantic and cruel, desolate and passionate, quiet and capricious.
We hope our architectural works will be of a serene quality, full of respect instead of humility, and firm instead of pertinacious in attitude. It simply stands there in peace, but you feel the power in it. It's is this power that brings you away from the hubbubs of daily life and brings you back into your inner cosmos, where you draw new energy and liberate your soul. Such architecture should bear a tinge of surrealism, with a bit of science fiction and a bit of romance.
2 The inspiration. What we want to build is a pure, sturdy and eternal residence, like a diamond that shines with brilliance, stays robust and is crystal clear. In front of its purity, like in front of the boundless desert, people feel the "void", the nonexistence of constancy of everything, and the nonexistence of ego. The power of "void" has a gigantic potential; its sturdiness, like its Greek name "adamas", means invincible or unconquerable. Diamond is worked adamas, which is the hardest substance in the world, and represents firm belief and strong will; diamond can confront fire and iron and has a supernatural power. It symbolizes eternity.
After being cut, polished and placed in the light, the clear, pure diamond radiates splendid colors like a brilliant star in the night sky. Ningxia is the "home of stars", and Shapotou, particularly quiet at night, is the place to contemplate stars, a romantic event that has been there for thousands of years. When night falls, stars shine brightly in heaven. The Desert Star Hotel, the first phase of the project (Zones A, B & C), is China's first desert and star-themed resort hotel, and enjoys now super popularity on the internet. What we are talking about now is the second phase of the project, which will be a luxurious outdoor boutique resort hotel offering more vivid themes and original experiences for guests requiring more high-quality amenities and spiritual satisfaction. And through the concept of "diamond", a connection is established between the desert and the starry sky, and between man and nature. That's the starting point of our design work.
3 Architecture, the media between man and nature. The vast emptiness and tranquility of the desert are a sharp contrast to the hustle and bustle of the city. When we cast our eyes on a city and its buildings and spaces, our thoughts and judgment are more rational and humanistic, our attention is more on interpersonal relations, and we tend to discuss their public aspects. With the desert, this specific landscape of nature, however, we must respect it, because architecture here is more like a medium, which stresses the man-nature relationship and creates an experience to convert primitive nature into a place to connect human beings, establishing a deeper liaison between man and nature by manmade structures. This is a process that depends on intuition and sensibility.
The farther away from the city, the nearer to the true ego, and the easier to release the deep energy in our hearts. Here, people are more liable to be satisfied on the spiritual plane, and they come here more often than not, not to seek leisure, but to experience the most primitive nature and the extreme extraordinaries. Such unique experiences are the opposite to their city life, but remain part of their pursuit of a complete life. We hope the architecture in the desert will bring out the potential energy of nature, and turn it into something that people can experience in person. We want to emphasize a special contrast and an in-depth experience to extend and complement city life. To show our respect to nature, we hide the architecture among sand dunes to avoid the howling gusts. When the rhythmic soft curves of the sand dunes meet the sharp geometric motifs of the sculptural architecture, a subtly dramatic effect is created as if an angular life nestles in the tender embrace of mother nature. Due to the converging irregular sections, the space loses its ordinary three-dimensional feature, and people in it feel a kind of hugging protection in the center of energy, listening to the voice of the heart. Life is but a moment in the miraculous cosmos, only the cosmos of the soul is the eternity. The cold and the warm collide here, and so do the bright and the dark, the illusive and the real, in line with the seemingly contradictory but fusing charm of the desert: vast and mysterious, romantic and cruel, desolate and passionate, quiet and capricious. The architecture amplifies nature and gives the invisible light and wind a tangible form.
4 Make light a second skin to the architecture. For the surface of the architecture, we adopt a somewhat coarse paint, of a greyish white color in consideration of the strong sunshine in the desert. When the sun shines on it, you can perceive the shimmering of the mineral grains, just like the shimmering sand grains in the sun. The white surface can best bring out the color of the sky, making the light a second skin to the architecture. The sunlight in different seasons and at different moments of the day blends the architecture with the desert, the sky and the heavenly bodies, and turns it into a timepiece. By looking at the change of light and shadow on the architecture, you can easily tell what time it is of the day. Like people's sentiments, the changing light and shadow are full of life.
In the design of the architectural surface, we adopt triangular star lights of various sizes, which are embedded in it to produce a changing texture. This design language is applied as a uniform motif throughout the architecture. Each triangular star light has a custom lamp box, the three inner sides of which are made of mirrors to reflect light infinitely. Take a close look, and you will find it similar to a kaleidoscope of endless changes; stepping back a little to have a broader view, you will perceive these star lights arranged at two variable intervals converge towards the angle to highlight the edges of the "diamond"; and when night falls, to have a complete picture, the lighting control system controls the star lights in alternate flashes. These lights breathe at night, as if they have come to life, to echo the brilliant galaxy.
5 Architecture amid the desert, or desert between architecture? The desert has a unique beauty, vast, romantic, quiet, mysterious and eternal. When we travel, one of our aims is to have some brand-new extreme experiences quite different from our daily life. They should be miraculous, original and unforgettable. In the design of the hotel, the core idea is to have the desert scenery incorporated in every way and to the ultimate extent. To have a desert view in the architecture should be part of the design. All windows with a view of the desert are designed in the profile of a diamond. The indoor spaces are an extension of the architecture design, and have irregular sections to match the entire architecture.
All the spaces are arranged one next to another in the narrow, long plot for construction, to create a ritual space sequence in axial symmetry. Right in the middle are the hotel's public amenities and service area: at Level 1 are Japanese restaurant and lounge bar, close to the outdoor diamond-shaped swimming pool and terrace. Here the rolling sand dunes play a part and hide the logistics that are concealed under Level 1; Level 2 accommodates the arrival area, lobby bar and reception. In appearance, it is a giant diamond with 27 sides. Inside the main entrance to the public area is designed an embedded negative diamond-shaped space composed of several sections, and the repeated mirror reflection gives it a blurred yet brilliant luster. Once inside, you will feel that you are in the diamond, and you are the heart of it. We hope the guests may have a surreal experience before they enter the hotel. When the auto door opens gradually, the giant diamond-shaped glass panel lets the whole desert indoors, to the great excitement of the guests.
In the middle of the public area, we have designed a ritual promenade that extends to the north, and at the end of the promenade is the Star Hall encircled by a round plaza. As the tallest and most important symbol of the entire hotel, the Star Hall, though only 100-odd square meters for ritual space, has a star roof of more than 27 meters high. And the large triangular French door of more than 10 meters high welcomes the setting sun indoors. This is the most important ritual space, where people join the heavenly bodies and the desert to witness and share love, and pay tribute to eternal romance in an extremely natural fashion. Under the main space of the Star Hall, we have designed auxiliary spaces such as bride chamber (for wedding ceremony), VIP room, toilets, storeroom and office. A lift is designed for guests to ascend to the hall for more comfortable and ceremonious experience. Outside the Star Hall is designed a round plaza for small-scale outdoor activities. The hall is so designed that lectures, brand releases and other custom events may also be held in the future.
Viewed from the sky, the entire hotel looks like a shining diamond necklace lying in the desert, where the public area and the hall are the brightest diamond pendants, and the guestrooms are independent diamonds strung together to form the necklace. The 30 guestrooms extend in a curved line like two wings on each side of the axis, each turning 5 degrees to have a different view of the desert, and their different elevations ensure a private scenery for each guestroom. Guestrooms at the first and second levels offer different living experiences: in the first level, the guestrooms have a semi-outdoor passage to connect the different chambers of the suites, where the living room is independent and is separate from the diamond-shaped bedroom. This detached design of the quiet space from the activity area meets the needs of different people. And through the terrace, the guests may reach the desert for an immersive experience; guestrooms at the second level are independent diamond-shaped spaces with a more complete diamond image, more independent indoor experience and higher and farther view of the desert. Each guestroom is equipped with an independent terrace bubble pool, a large bed and a bathtub that face the desert. It is our hope that the guests may have the best natural scenery in every part of the room where they can comfortably lie down.
At the tips of the wings of the hotel are two large detached suites that can be used for wedding purpose, accessible by all-terrain vehicles. With the ritual space of the wedding hall, one-stop wedding service can be provided. In the first level are the living room and a small bedroom. By an indoor spiral staircase, the extra-large bedroom on the second level can be reached. Private indoor courtyard and private scenery are available, and a bubble pool and outdoor swimming pool are equipped. The bathroom in the second level has a specially designed bathtub where you can enjoy the galaxy through the skylight for an extremely romantic experience. The desert as you watch in the architecture is no longer a place of fright or horror. Instead, it is a place of love and power.
6 Epilogue. When we first stepped into this desert in May 2021, there was but a boundless ocean of sand, and we set free our minds to conceive a utopia. Ever since the project broke ground, we have made no less than 20 trips to the worksite. We have witnessed its growth out of the ground despite numerous sandstorms and rainstorms, and we have also experienced the extreme silence without a wisp of wind, in which you can hear your heartbeat. When the project was finally completed, the effect far exceeded my imagination. What a wonderful work of nature! It is the recreation of nature that has given the architecture its life, and created a Utopia in the desert that connects man and nature. During the entire process, we have experienced conflicts and nice surprises, confusions and reliefs, regrets and hopes, and we have turned innumerable impossibilities into possibilities. Everything has turned out to be the best.
