our friends wei hang and peter from alliance architects in shenzhen took us to their project under construction. we drove eastwards away from the shopping frenzy of luowu and away from the landscaped artificiality of shennan avenue, along a scenic passage between green hills and the winding coastline. there are the occasional lowrise clumps of buildings and beaches dotted with weekend swimmers. it all feels like things were left to grow gently and naturally. if shenzhen grows to be like hongkong in ten years’ time, you’d want to have a house along this part of town. take a whiff before it starts to smell like rich real estate.

alliance’s hotel is on an exclusive stretch of beach just below a sharp drop off the coastal road. it consists of 4 blocks: a lobby/restaurant block and a round public bathhouse between 2 guestroom blocks. all spaces come with amazing sea views.

the sequences of movement between buildings and from public to private spaces are carefully orchestrated. existing site conditions like trees and rocks are sensitively incorporated much to the chagrin of the contractors who seemed hell-bent to flatten all things in their way. once, a worker accidentally dropped a plumbline from a storey above and grazed past wei hang’s head, missing him by inches. he was lucky it had not taken his life. wei hang to this day believes that his life was spared because he had help saved several banyan trees on site. 

after spending an hour there, the sea views seemed to me a bit relentless. after a whle, i wanted to find a spot where you can’t see the sea but simply relish its smells and sounds. the incidental few dark framed views on the site became somehow quite precious.