No Comments »

An Eccentric Skiers Getaway in China – Snow Apartment

• Tweet

• Tweet

Now here’s a strange sight! And is that… a ski rack?

The Snow Apartment by penda is located in Zhangjiakou, Hebei, China in a famous skiing region north of Beijing.

Inspired by a melting snowfield in spring, when nature slowly revives from winter and offers a contrast of cold and warm, white and colored, the apartment is entirely white and wood.

A series of skylights offer the only daylight – as if we really have been buried in a snowdrift.

The plastered walls of ‘snow’ are suspended just above the floor with brilliant white LED under lighting – further suggesting spring melting.

To build the soft undulating ‘snow’, local craftsmen hand-plastered over wooden forms.

By ancient tradition, craftsmen in the north of China are familiar with the exacting techniques required to generate these sorts of handcrafted plaster curves.

A network of heating pipes is inside the thick plaster and emits a gentle radiant warmth through the thick plaster walls.

These cozily warmed walls of ‘snow’ are enjoyed by the client and his guests after a cold day skiing.

The layout of this strange folly is on a grid, with the extensive plaster form work attached to the wooden base.

Most of the bedrooms get some sort of a skylight like melting snow.

With seven bedrooms and several bathrooms, the very eccentric Snow Apartment provides room for the client and his friends to gather at a ski weekend-getaway that is really quite unique.