Yuyao Minglu (Clubhouse)

The project is located in Yuyao, Zhejiang province, bordered by Houqing River to the north and the former residence of Wang Yangming (the leading figure of the Neo-Confucian School of mind) to the south, and adjacent to the Wusheng Gate historic and cultural zone, the birthplace of the Yaojiang School (Yangming School of Mind) and the Zhedong School (Eastern Zhejiang School).

As a venue for branded events and reception, this project has multiple functions. The designer has abandoned elaborate decoration and focused more on the experiential quality of the interior space itself by transforming the traditional Chinese woodwork with a modern language and creating a space filled with diverse elements.

Enclosed with dark wood finishes and light-colored walls, the traditional wooden structure is dismantled into simple geometric elements,which creates a layered spatial experience with a sense of linear wooden frame through the entire house.

The use of different shades of light and texture in the minimalist color-blocking design, integrated with geometric elements with a feeling of movement, creates a calming and dynamic space.

For instance, in an unnoticed corner, you can see the long strip of light exists with the large rough stone and mysterious black iron plate,which in general breaks the quiet and elegant atmosphere in the space.

Through the dark brown wooden steps to the second floor, and a private round box with a wooden door, you can see a Chinese folding screen with a frosted texture. The design of the clubhouse tries to achieve a balance between modernity and tradition, simpleness and sophistication.

The wooden lines hanging from the top are interspersed with rounded corners, creating an environment filled both with rigidity and flexibility.

The large wooden elements used, together with the interspersed linear metal elements, give the whole space a rustic and delicate touch, while remaining minimalist and light. The simple geometric elements, the subtle hues and the natural material texture have reconstructed the quality of the space.

“A pine grown greener with the rain, a brook that comes from a mountain source- and, mingling with Truth among the flowers, I have forgotten what to say.” This is a fragment from a poem by Liu Changqing in Tang Dynasty. The designer borrows the name and connotation of the clubhouse from the final couplet to emphasize that, when a man is questing for something in the world of physical reality, he can rest with a self-examination when returning to his house.