Making a hotel out of a sugar factory: Hotel Alila by Vector Architects

Heritage buildings consisting of a disused sugar mill from the 1960s form part of the Alila Yangshuo Hotel located in a picturesque landscape typical of the karst mountains of the Yangshuo Region.  The old industrial architecture is situated in the central part of the hotel complex and is flanked by newly constructed suites and villas. A sunken plaza and a decorative water basin underscore the significance of the old structures.

The newly-added buildings reference the existing ones in terms of forms and materiality. Built of hollow concrete blocks and in-situ concrete elements, they create a lightweight and transparent impression yet do not stand in contrast with the existing buildings. At the same time the angle of the roof pitch on the new buildings corresponds to that of the factory structures.

Two circulation systems lead through the large new hotel building. Along with a customary interior corridor, an exterior passage connects three cave-like nodal rooms, with the architecture framing and emphasising the changing views onto the nearby and distant scenery.