Project: Chenglu Villa
Architects: GAD Architecture
Location: Lingshui, Hainan, China
Area: 12,916 sq ft
Photographs by: Zhao Qiang, courtesy of GAD Architecture
Chenglu Villa by GAD Architecture
Designed by GAD Architecture, the Chenglu Villa is located in Qingshui Bay International Resort in Lingshui County, south-east of Hainan Island. It is a rather large resort that has a 2-kilometer coastline. There are 12 villas in total as part of the Greentown Hainan Blue Bay Town Project and Chenglu is one of them.
From the architects: “The project is only 50 meters (164 feet) away from the beach, with the great sea-view as its most distinguishing character. Based on the knowledge gained from residential design practice, the designers place top priority on the achievement of maximum sight of the sea. As for these two houses, we put all the activity spaces adjoin to the coastline and make them fully occupy each site.
House Ten is designed with two sets of parallel masses with one set perpendicular to another to form an enclosed square arrangement. So it enjoys a widest sea view horizontally. By further uprising the mass facing the sea in the front and lowering its outdoor space, more sea view is brought in to the two side masses and the back mass, which provide all-dimensional sea-view experience. House Nine also adopts similar design concept by forming an H-shaped sightseeing stand facing the ocean, to expend the ocean view as far as possible.”
From the architects: “The natural attribute of villa determines that it could only be enjoyed by the minority. Nevertheless, in the high-end housing market, potential of modern style architectures has been always doubted by developers. With an overall consideration of architect’s demands and interests of the owners, the designers decided to use “space experience” as the initial point.
Through building structure restrictions, space order organization, contraction of scene, dynamic and static areas and the choice of building materials such as stone, wood, glass or medal, as well as quality distinguishing, it creates different space experience like being smooth, rough or mild. All of these contribute to build a spiritual space which is modern and well accepted by the target group.”
From the architects: “The villas are built in transparent structure; the grey space blurs the boundary of building itself, interior space, the landscape and curtain walls. By taking this advantage, architects ‘intrudes ’the area which are outside the architecture for substantial trans-boundary design or design orientation relying on the consultant team . The integrated design experimentation is a brand new experience to the whole team, which is also a small step towards “refined design” in architecture.”
From the architects: “The two villas share a similar configuration standard. In the entrance, you’ll see a ceremonial front yard with a garage for two cars. Owners of each house have their separate living room, dining room, family room, Chinese and western kitchens, at least five suite bedrooms (including a luxurious master bedroom on the second floor) as well as studies and etc.
The designers ensure at least four rooms mentioned above have the sea-view. Many semi-outdoor platform terraces facing the ocean are created out of building eaves and stilt, serving as functional expansions of the indoor spaces. The service spaces with their independent entrances and exits together with the service circulation are separated from the host area. In addition, each villa is equipped with a swimming pool, SPA pool and garden.”
