Pure House Boutique Hotel in Dali, Yunnan

Chongqing Yueyi Architectural Design Office designed the new Pure House Boutique Hotel in Dali, Yunnan province, China. The building has deliberately essential lines to leave more room for the breath-taking mountain scenery surrounding it.


Dali is a city in Yunnan Province in south-west China and the old town has become well-known as a tourist site in part thanks to its picturesque location and well-preserved historic Bai architecture dating back 3000 years, making it one of China's 24 most important historical and cultural cities. Its location on Lake Erhai near the Cangshan mountains is a real drawcard, alongside the unusual climate - indeed, it is also known as “Geneva of the East”. 
In the past few years, the city has experienced an architectural boom with lots of projects for top quality hospitality facilities born specifically as a response to nature with which they seek a harmonious relationship. One of these is the Pure House Boutique Hotel. The hotel is located on the hillside of the Cangshan golf course, overlooking Lake Erhai with awe-inspiring views of the nearby mountains, whose presence defines the hotel project designed by Chongqing Yueyi Architectural Design Office.
Making the most of the hillside slope, they located two of the hotel's five floors below ground level. This choice really reduces the visual impact of the building, also helped by the design team's decision to use wood and glass detailing on the upper floors so it all blends into the natural environment, as well as natural stone retaining walls at the garden level. Large windows make for constant connection with the exterior, almost completely knocking down the barriers between architecture and landscape for whoever is inside. 
The generously sized spaces spread a feeling of serenity, underscored by the interior design, where the incredibly clean lines go perfectly with the white concrete walls, stone and bespoke furnishing made from locally sourced wood. The focal point of the hotel is the large, double-height hall with fireplace on the fourth floor, where,  in addition to providing access to the mezzanine of the fifth level with scenic views, also overlooks the infinity pool that flows into Lake Erhai. 
With the Pure House Boutique Hotel, Chongqing Yueyi Architectural Design Office has crafted a building that is the perfect transposition of the facility's Chinese name, "Shi Shan Fang". "Shi" means active involvement, "Shan" refers to the environment where the building is located. and "Fang" is a manifestation of return to simplicity. Which is exactly what the clients and architects want - to give guests an experience where wellbeing is engendered by the coming together of landscape and architecture, materials and ideas.

Christiane Bürklein 

Architectural design: Chongqing Yueji Architectural Design Office
Chief Architects: LI Jun, HE Biao
Design Team: XU Xiangdong, WANG Yuansheng, CHEN Wei, WANG Yuedong
Project location: Dali, Yunnan Province, China 
Area: 1550 ㎡
Floors of the Building: 3 floors on the ground , 2 floors under ground
Year: 2017
Owners: HE Biao, LI Jun
Interior design: Signyan Design 
Interior designers: XIE Ke, ZHI Hongxin
Construction: Pure House Boutique Hotel
Construction Director: DONG Yushu, DONG Wei
Photography: Arch-Exist, MConcept