yinjispace

ARCHITECTURE
WJ STUDIO
PHOTOGRAPHY
Tian Fang Fang
EDITOR
Gina
Collection

Approximately five years ago, WJ STUDIO embarked on a tourism development project in Shengsi County—a remote archipelago perched at sea in the northeastern Zhoushan Islands. The journey to Shengsi remains an expedition: 2.5 hours by ferry from Zhoushan Main Island, 3 hours combined land/sea travel from Shanghai, 4.5 hours via road and ferry connections from Hangzhou, 4 hours from Ningbo via vehicle-passenger ferries. While helicopter and seaplane routes have recently been introduced, Shengsi’s accessibility challenges modern travelers’ efficiency-driven expectations. This geographical seclusion inherently limits its appeal to mainstream tourism—a challenge that would later define our design approach for the Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel. Positioned as a national-level island scenic zone integrating marine culture with island folk traditions, the Shengsi focuses on ecotourism, leisure retreats, and scientific education. Huanglong Island locates at the core development area. During the design team's initial site exploration, the island's distinctive character proved profoundly arresting.

Huanglong Island, also known as “East Sea Stone Village,” features stone houses, stone streets, and stone landscapes that are the culmination of the survival wisdom of the island's early inhabitants in response to the rugged terrain. The dwellings are built in tiers along the mountain slopes, forming a staircase-like structure along the rock ridges. To shelter from fierce sea winds, all residential buildings radiate outward from the harbor on the southwest side of the site. A municipal concrete road has been constructed at the entrance of Dongjutou Village, but the internal village roads are simple cement walkways ranging from 1.5 to 3 meters in width. Transportation conditions are rudimentary, and road repairs are disorganized and irregular. However, the original road system has formed a unique spatial form that harmoniously complements the village's residential architecture.

The overall spatial strategy for the hotel follows the spatial scale of the original village and organizes the spatial order based on the topographical elevation differences. The original dwellings on the island typically range in size from 60 to 180 square meters, with a relatively small scale. The primary building material is yellow brick and stone, which offers good structural strength. The design integrates the building as an extension of the natural topography and existing village fabric. The main building is anchored between three original protected reefs. The massing and form of the building complex respond to the texture of the adjacent existing primitive residential settlements. The volume of the modern building echoes the primitive reef in another way. The design uses isolated foundations to suspend the solid space above the reef, further reducing the sense of weight. The smooth bottom surface of the building and the rough, angular surface of the reef create a distinctive gray space, adding interest to the landscape.

The building complex conforms to the steep mountain terrain, with only two relatively flat rock formations. The core area of the hotel is naturally divided into two groups, connected by an outdoor walkway that naturally descends along the mountain ridge. The design uses a sensory rhythm of “hidden-peek-open” and multiple transformations between “outdoor-indoor” and “indoor-outdoor” to represent the original experience of traveling across the island. Block A is centered around a vast, open rock hall. The weathered, pristine reef stones are preserved at the base of the building, which acts like a “canopy” to protect them, allowing visitors to get up close to the texture of the reef stones. The design blurs the absolute boundaries between ‘inside’ and “outside,” making the space itself a medium that guides the viewer's perception. 

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