Opened last year, Xinzhai Coffee Manor is a plantation resort in China’s Yunnan province that features a museum and coffee production facility. Erica Jamieson reports
Xinzhai Coffee Manor, located in China’s south-western Yunnan province, is equal parts hotel, museum, store and coffee production house. Designed by Trace Architecture Office, it incorporates existing brick buildings into the complex, paying homage to traditional design in the Baoshan region.
“The building is greatly inspired by bricks, which leads to the use of different forms of vaults in architecture. Bricks are in fact commonly seen locally, most buildings on the site and in adjacent villages are made of bricks,” Trace Architecture Office told Dezeen.
Built entirely of brick, the room naturally regulates temperature and humidity, making it an effective coffee bean cellar.
Hotel rooms sit at the top, where large windows maximise panoramas of the Nuijiang valley and neighboring Gaoligong mountain.
“The design begins with a perception of the site and reflections on the material, while its core is the characteristic of place it aims to create – belonging to the earth or leading afar to horizon”, the firm says.
The region is visited for hiking and trips to Tengchong Thermal Sea Scenic Area and Hotsprings. Completed last year, before the onset of Covid-19, developers hoped that Xinzhai Coffee Manor would beat the curve of mounting tourism infrastructure.
“Resort development is growing in the countryside area in China, it’s an evolution and transformation,” Trace Architecture Office told. “New architecture in the rural space is transforming the area and enriching the local culture.”
Although China is closed to foreign tourists at the moment because of the Covid-19 pandemic, an upswing in domestic travel to countryside locations has been observed as locals emerge from lockdown.