Vector Architects

Gong Dong's architecture evocatively combines features of the modern with lessons learned from China's old culture of craftsmanship while giving utmost attention to the experiential qualities of design. Beyond great facility, the rm is celebrated for exploring the possibilities of sustainability and eco-sensitive construction. Recently featured in the exhibition Reuse, Renew, Recycle: Recent Architecture from China at New York's MoMA, Dong's work was singled out for the Alila Yangshio Hotel. A readaptation of an old industrial site and former sugar factory near the Chinese city of Guilin, known for its dramatic landscape of precipitous limestone karst hills, the hotel embraces the extraordinary site, with pools that reect the stunning surrounds, while also oering great comfort and ease to guests. The book presents the rm's most breathtaking work, from its celebrated Seashore Chapel, which suggests a marriage of the cerebral power of Le Corbusier and the rened magic of Tadao Ando while making a serene and unique statement of its own, to the magical Captain's House, a renovation of a modernist dwelling set atop a cli overlooking a shing village and the sea. This elegantly illustrated and beautifully designed book is the rst in English to comprehensively document this exceptionally high quality, quietly rich, and greatly rewarding architecture.