The balconies of Sky Yards Hotel in Xiuwu County, China, are designed to focus views upwards, framing the sky and mountains instead of the construction sites below.
Located in an industrial area in Henan Province, the 48-room hotel was designed by Shanghai-based practice Domain Architects and includes a restaurant, banquet hall and swimming pools.
Top: The Sky Yards Hotel has a white exterior. Above: a fence mimics the shape of the terraces
The building sits atop a raised concrete base concealing underground parking. L-shaped in plan, the hotel surrounds a pool and terrace.
Some of the rooms overlook this courtyard, but the majority face outwards, towards views that the practice wanted to carefully control.
"Usually a hotel room would be designed as an outward box to maximise the view," said the practice. "We rejected this conventional model," it added. "The exterior view below eye-level is blocked, while the view above is left open and lifted to invite more light and air."
The walls of the hotel's balconies project outwards
Each of the rooms overlooking the landscape features deep covered balconies, what the practice refers to as "micro yards".
Each of these micro yards has a high-level opening cut out of the exterior wall. The roofs are pulled upwards to reveal the sky, creating a distinctive exterior of stacked, pitched forms.
Floor-to-ceiling windows frame views across the mountains
The front walls are then pulled outwards to cre...