Throughout Guangzhou and other parts of China, arcade houses locate commercial businesses on street level while residences sit atop. This typology, called Qi Lou, creates protected space for pedestrian traffic and urban life. Beijing Laboratory for Urban Environment (B.L.U.E) Architecture Studio used this vernacular for Author’s Room Hotel, a new property for naive IMAGINIST in Aranya Jiulong Lake.

Author’s Room Hotel is an hour’s drive from downtown Guangzhou and located along the eastern side of the serene Jiulong Lake reservoir. Mountains sandwich the property in from its other side. Spanning four floors, the building’s stepped formation arises from the surrounding mountains. Like the Qi Lou, the 24,918-square-foot hotel locates public spaces—a cafe, bookstore, and dining room—on the first floor. The 18 hotel rooms that occupy the upper levels create a subtle separation from the public ground floor to the more private upper floors.

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