Tongzhou, China

Placid Rivers Club at the Courtyards

The club is positioned on the northern banks of the historic Grand Canal, which is the world’s oldest and longest man-made canal. It stands along the east line of Tiananmen Square in Tongzhou, east of Beijing. It is one of the fanciest private clubs in Beijing, which serves all the 200 families of the villa community. The club features lounge, wine & cigar bar, restaurant with 10 private dining rooms, ballroom, banquet and conference rooms, Spa, VIP rooms, barbecue garden, gym and sauna & steam rooms. There are 24 service apartments on the 2nd floor. The building contains 1 floor underground and 2 floors aboveground.

Following the architectural tradition of Beijing courtyard house, the club space is designed into courtyard structure. But, the present courtyard is different from the traditional one: the density of the city today does not allow for the expansion of buildings but requires them to be developed vertically. Thus, the Thai Hot club is divided into 12 courtyards which connect and stack with each other and meanwhile embrace a big central courtyard. The stack structure forms a group of semi-outdoor spaces of different qualities, which can also be taken as multiple changes of traditional corridors. The guests can enjoy the fun of roaming among the courtyards, the convenience of various indoor and outdoor activities, as well as the placidity and harmony of the environment. Therefore, the architecture is also called the 12-Box Courtyard.

The 12 courtyards are endowed with four kinds of facades: concrete blocks, red cedar panel outer walls, aluminum panel walls and glass walls. All the four kinds of facades are based on the WEAVE concept, resulting in rich textural qualities in a step’s distance.

The building structure consists of both concrete and steel structures, and is accompanied with shear walls. The exposed steel columns are presented in the semi-outdoor spaces in a most slender appearance. The exposed shear walls are presented with fair-faced concrete, and the hole-structure in them clearly reflects the structural rules of the principle bars inside.

CREDITS

Client: Thai Hot Group

Location: Tongzhou, Beijing, China

Principal Architect: Yung Ho Chang

Project Architect: Liu Yang, Wang Kuan

Project Team: Chen Long, Lu Yichen, Liu Yang, Bai Chen

Assistant Architects: North-Hamazah-Yeang Architectural Engineering Design Co., Ltd (Project Design); AURA Architects & Associates (Interior Design)

Structure and Material: Concrete & Steel

Building Area: 12,096 sq. meters

Design Period: March 2004-September 2005

Construction Period: 2005-2009

Europaconcorsi Beta

Placid Rivers Club at the Courtyards