A Hotel That Brings Ancient Shangri-La to Life
In ancient Dukezong, One Soul Design has reimagined a traditional residence as the Pure Life Hotel, a space inspired by the area’s traditional culture with contemporary touches. Founder Yu Shan tells us more
Design Anthology: Where is the hotel located?
Yu Shan: It’s in Dukezong Ancient City in Shangri-La, Yunnan Province. There are large Tibetan Buddhist temples, Songzanlin temple and monastery, and many world-famous hiking trails nearby.
What makes the location unique?
Shangri-La is a city where people can learn about Tibetan culture in China. It’s the only way to see the ancient Yunnan-Tibet Tea Horse Road. The city is rich with Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhist temples. The hiking routes around the city are world-famous, such as Tiger Leaping Gorge, Abuji Cuo, Yubeng, the Meili Snow Mountains and Nanji Luo. The hotel is located under the Great Buddha Temple, which was once a temple for compiling scriptures, and Dukezong in general also has a long history.
What unique features does the building have?
The building is a renovation and expansion of a former Tibetan residential building, retaining the stone and wood materials used in the original construction for redecoration. The streamlined layout of the reception hall is based on the previous rest stops on the Tea Horse Road. The front hall has an open public entrance to reference the tying of horses at entrances in the past. Inside is an open courtyard to ease the flow of people, and next to it is a check-in and coffee shop.
What was your design concept?
The layout of the entire ancient town is that the highest place is the Great Buddha Temple. From the hotel window, you can see the Great Buddha Temple, just like looking at the mountain top from part way up the mountain. I feel that this hotel is like a cloud floating on the mountainside, so I expressed my first feeling in the beginning of the design. I wanted to make the space as soft as a cloud so the guests could relax and see the outside scenery floating in the clouds. But because there are other buildings on three sides, there are limits on how the windows can be opened. So, I tried to open small windows to bring the scenery into the rooms. In this concept, people’s movement is also like clouds floating, so I created other small gaps throughout to see other places while moving.
What kind of traveller do you think this hotel will appeal to most?
People who are coming for hiking trips, tourists from Shangri La and people who are visiting the ancient city for sightseeing.
What can guests look forward to experiencing in the rooms?
I think the main things are the scenery outside the window, the style of the room and the dishes from Heqing, Yunnan brought in by the hotel’s founder.
Images by Liu Wen
