Wuyuan Skywells Hotel: Captures the essence of a bygone era

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An authentic luxury retreat in rural China, Wuyuan Skywells captures the essence of a bygone era in the millennium–old Yan village.

This luxury hotel project focused on the preservation rather than the modernisation of a 300-year-old Huizhou-style property deep in East China’s Jiangxi Province.

The hotel is named after the English translation of “Tian Jing”—a regional architectural feature comprising of narrow courtyards that let daylight into surrounding rooms.

The luxury Chinese hotel is owned by a Shanghai-based couple. They used their life savings to purchase the property and turn it around while acting as custodians rather than gentrifying hoteliers.

One of the key requirements was to preserve not only the recoverable artefacts but to also recreate the grandeur and elegance that was associated with the mansion, which, due to its remote location, was fortunate enough to survive a tumultuous 20thCentury China. Having once served as an inn for merchants crossing through the region, the building was in a state of disrepair and was also a haven for Chinese soldiers fighting the Japanese invasion of the mainland.

Award-winning firm Anyscale Architecture Design executed the project in a manner that respected and honoured the local architectural history. The features were restored in a manner where current and future generations could understand and appreciate traditional design.

Original and traditional elements in public areas were retained while the more private spaces for guests were contemporised with playful fittings and modern-day amenities, with the interior design of the 14 suites dominated by a mélange of warm and cool neutrals interspersed with occasional bright accent colours.

A unique aspect of the property is the internal timber frame, ornately carved in public areas. Since large parts of the frame had been destroyed due to severe neglect, the team searched for and engaged the services of Yuzong, a talented local artisan with the requisite skill and experience.

In addition to basic restoration, he also rendered replacements for irrecoverable decorative carvings as per traditional and his own adapted designs. His replacement carvings for the main beam in the entrance area are particularly significant as they employ motifs inspired by the clients’ background and story. In this way, the cultural aspects of the property were not only given a facelift but were also upgraded to reflect a new chapter in the building’s legacy.

Though the building features skywells, the rooms and suites themselves do not feature generous windows. To avoid polluting the external appearance and original architecture, the team introduced latticed panels on walls facing the skywells, and high-quality artificial lighting. Brick and clay walls were restored and rebuilt according to local tradition and keep the structure cool during hot summers.