1. Buildings near the mountains
"More than Retreat", designed by Ploy Design Studio, is a holiday boutique hotel hidden in the forest. The project is located in the ice city -- Harbin. In its design, the concept of architecture in the cold region is fully demonstrate, and the buildings are integrated into mountains and forests as a part of nature, allowing people who have lived in the busy city for a long time to get out of the hustle and bustle, walk close to the green mountains and streams, and return to life.
Life is not only full of noise, but also teas and green mountains;
Life is not only full of anxieties, but also flowers and sea of clouds;
Life is not only full of compromise, but also poetry and lofty;
Life is not only full of desires, but also book and dreamland;
Life should be like this, simple but “more than retreat”
For the purpose of forest health & wellness, " More than Retreat " exclusively enjoys 43 hectares of private forest and is equipped with comprehensive service zone, accommodation zone, wild luxury tent zone, forest barbecue zone, forest children's development zone, horse farm, outdoor recreation zone, bonfire camp zone, etc., which are scattered and hidden in the forest, providing urban residents with an excellent leisure and vacation venue.
2. Buildings coexist with the mountains
Its design concept is to pursue simplicity, emphasize the feelings brought by the place, and do not deliberately create a space contrary to the natural environment. Based on the original terrain of the mountain area, the open and flat area in the forest is used as the welcoming and distribution venues, and the space below the forest is used as the outdoor activity zone to form a comfortable environment under the shade of the forest; a water surface is created in low-lying area to facilitate the formation of a natural ice rink in winter; the guest rooms are built on the hillside, and guests can enjoy the tranquility of life by enjoying the lake and overlooking the green mountains in the morning and evening through the floor viewfinder window.
The whole design team is committed to making use of the characteristics of gentle mountain forest terrain and straight vegetation in Northeast China in order to hide the buildings. Although these buildings looks plain and ordinary, you can see the wild flowers in summer and the afterglow of the sunset in the evening, can appreciate the plain mountain scenery of the northern forest,And experience the artistic conception of flowers in spring、moon in autumn、cool wind in summer and snow in winter, which is the best way to live with the mountains.
The project has 8 guest rooms in the forest, and each room has different types, styles and views, with independent entrances and depend on each other, ranging in area from 35 square meters to 120 square meters. All the rooms are named with the poetic names of native plants in Northeast China, such as "Jiami", "Simian", and "Luanzhi". The laminated loft room in the lake-view suite is 7 meters high, with open kitchen, dining room, and living room on the 1st floor, main bedroom, second bedroom and bathroom on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and a waterfront terrace is equipped in the open air, which can meet the needs of family gatherings and vacations. The lake-view room suitable for two people is equipped with a glass roof for enjoying the pure starry sky. The mountain-view suite is hidden on the hillside of the forest, which can be accessed through the shuttling steps and rest platform. Natural light spills into every corner of the room through the floor-to-ceiling windows, warming the body and mind of guests resting in the winter forest.
3. Warm buildings
In the whole process of design and implementation, "more than retreat" always adheres to the principle of respecting nature. All constructions are based on the original topography with pile foundations cantilevered above the land, and reasonably avoid and protect native trees, closely integrate with them, so as to bring minimal impact to the native environment. In considering the thermal insulation problem of buildings in cold regions, the walls are constructed with EPS polystyrene boards, and the large-area floor-to-ceiling windows are made of multi-layer composite glass, which can effectively reduce heat conduction. The heating method in winter combines floor heating and electric heating glass. The heating materials are biomass pellets made from surrounding farmland waste and woodland dead branches and leaves, which can generate environmentally friendly heat energy through a biomass boiler. The design team selects local stones, dead wood in the forest, and discarded sleepers to decorate the indoor and outdoor environments. What we pursue is not What we pursue is not cold buildings, but a warm environment that can bring warmth to users and bring diverse life to nature.
The concept of the interior design originated from "HYGEE", which is Danish that means comfort and pleased. HYGEE is the lifestyle we advocate, that is, to release the charm of extreme comfort in the forest. The design creates a comfortable and poetic living environment from the user’s point of view, and introduces the outdoor environment into the interior. The variable window scenery, warm woods, and interesting decorations all reflect the perfect integration of natural environment and poetic life, expressing the rustic design concept of respecting nature and respecting the site. The abandoned sleepers are reborn in the space, trying to express the metaphor of time freeze and the balance of space decoration.