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2024 GFD 🏆 Awards

Gold Winner | Sutra Transformation, A Desert Retreat Inspired by Murals of Mogao Caves | CAA

Located within a range of 25km from the famous Mogao caves, the UNESCO listed world cultural heritage and an important foothold of the ancient silk road, the meaning of this project goes beyond the harmony with desert topography, but rather an echo of thousand year sybmolic art represented by the sutra murals. As courtyard has proved to be a sustainable architectural typoloy in arid areas, this project follows this strategy making the sunken inner courtyard a unique desert oasis around which public areas of the hotel are centered. Inspired by the mountains painted with mineral pigments in the murals of Mogao caves, nine colorful and deformed pavilions coated by mineral stucco rise from the sand in the sunken inner courtyard, reflected by the crescent infinity pool right in front, create a unique panorama with surreal vibe for hotel guests returning from Mogao Caves to continue their experience of sutra transformation and get mental tranquility. Inside the pavilions, it is where hotel amenities are provided, including open air jacuzzi and meditation shelter.

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Gold 🏆 Winner
Global Future Design Awards 2024

Sutra Transformation, A Desert Retreat Inspired by Murals of Mogao Caves
Hospitality Architecture (Concept)

Firm
CAA

Architect/Designer
Min Zhuo

Design Team
Junjie Lu

Location
Dunhuang, Gansu, China

Country
China

Photographer/Copyright
©Min Zhuo

Website
N/A

Instagram
N/A

At the crossroads of the ancient silk road, this is where east meets west. Western colonnade is used as a symbolic formal language, where the vernacular architectural details of using hemp rope tying wood pillars are adopted in the lobby, making a unique colonnade of local influence. This small scale resort hotel is meant to be created as an oasis of the desert, a rather cultural oasis as opposed to a natural one.