Namhae Southcape Linear Suite Hotel by BCHO Architects

Project description by BCHO Architects Associates

Namhae Hotel forms part of a proposal for this small peninsula to include a new golf course, club house and villas. The high end, 49 room hotel is intended to strike a certain harmony with the natural elements of the landscape, emphasised by the use of simple structures and resolute forms that detract little from the dramatic hills and ridgelines of the island.

Challenging the conventional capacity of a hotel as one large entity, our proposal splits the building into seven units, uniquely adapting to the site by following the slope line and rock thus organically surrounding nature. The programmatic inclination of the hotel, whose guests are mostly golfers, allows the buildings to be isolated and served directly from the clubhouse while electronic cards eliminate a reliance on staff.

All buildings are composed of two linear boxes, intentionally kept low, disappearing into the site to allow for uninterrupted views southwards of the beautiful peninsula. These two storey masses are juxtaposed and cantilevered in order to frame views of the ocean, concurrently following the gradient of the natural topography. Additionally, the cantilevers have a functional use of protecting cars and pedestrians from the often extreme climatic conditions of the cape, creating a cool tunnel within the sloping hill. Elevations orientated towards the ocean are typified by maximum surface area allowance for windows, in contrast to hillside elevations where minimal windows produce an inherently high thermal efficiency. Resonating with the archaic principle of architecture as shelter, solid balconies provide protection from strong typhoons during the summer, forming deep punctuation in the solid masses of the hotel.

The architecture is allowed subtly recede into the background as an inanimate object by the monolithic choice in materials. Smooth concrete is used extensively internally, while externally the concrete becomes ground to expose the grains of gravel and sand used in the construction process. Consequently, architecture is no longer found in the building itself, but in the relationship between these monolithic blocks and the landscape.

Primitive materials, with an emphasis on rawness, heighten the sense of an architecture having a resonance with the natural opposed to the artificial. The corridors use exposed concrete to the floor and whiles while black treated stainless steel adds to the distinct ambience inside these circulation spaces. Solid wood able to absorb the moisture of the sea air clads the guestroom roofs, the edges left exposed allowing the depth of the material to be perceived. Architectural juxtapositions dramatise the sequence of spaces that lead the inhabitant to there room. A phenomenological beauty is created through the dramatic contrast in dark spaces provided by the tunnel and corridors with the intense daylight found in the guestrooms.