Garden Valley Spa-Clubhouse

Garden Valley is our first project in China. It contains 40 holiday dwellings high up between the trees, six spa units and a large spa-clubhouse over 1500m2 big. Garden Valley is a green woody area near the city Liyang. The tree-top houses are lifted on high poles between the bamboo-trees and overlook the beautiful valley with fields filled with tea plants, ponds and a lake.

The spa-clubhouse has a well-organized floorplan. The different functions are organized around the core, which contain the stairs, and every function has its own fascinating panoramic view of the surroundings. Every moment of the day the functions follow the morning, mid-day or evening-sun. These assumptions together with the location on a green mountain-slope, results in exciting staggered and cantilevered volumes with windows on surprising positions. Every public function or private massage room has a terrace with a magnificent view.

The almost floating volumes are coated with local wood. Energy for the tree-top houses is collected by burning woodchips and is generated by the solar panels. The water used for the showers and the hot-tub is collected from a local hotspring. Food is mostly local and electric cars are used for transporting the visitors. Different exchange projects between Liyang and Leeuwarden started. Projects based on exchange knowledge of food and horticulture. Mentioned above makes this project sustainable on different levels, which is the goal of the collaboration between Leeuwarden and Liyang.

It’s the ultimate relaxation: waking up feeling free as a bird, almost floating between the tree-tops with the sound of croaking frogs and many chirping birds. Exactly the client envisioned: Enjoying nature by giving the nature something back instead of taking from it.