Trading the concrete jungle for the real deal. At Dongmingshan Senyu Hotel, city dwellers ditch the digital grind for forest air, tree views and architecture that doesn’t shout, it breathes.
Photographer: Chen Xi Studio
Hidden deep within the tranquil forests of Hangzhou, China, the Dongmingshan Senyu Hotel is redefining what it means to escape the city. Designed by the visionary team at GLA Architects, this 1,300㎡ retreat isn’t just another resort, it’s a quiet, thoughtful embrace of nature.
In a time when eco-conscious travel is becoming a priority for young urbanites, this forest-fringed haven offers a compelling response: a stay rooted in serenity, sustainability and design that whispers rather than shouts.
Set amid metasequoia groves and bamboo thickets, the hotel is an ode to low-impact living. Instead of altering the existing landscape, GLA Architects approached the project like a “minimally invasive surgery,” carefully tucking new structures into the natural terrain without felling a single tree.
Here, architecture and environment don’t compete, they collaborate. The site’s reception centre, for instance, inherits the footprint of a crumbling wooden structure and transforms it into a threshold between civilization and retreat. South-facing windows welcome sunlight and forest views, while clerestory openings draw the bamboo canopy into the space.
Hangzhou’s Forest Hotel Is More Than a City Escape
The accommodation comes in three distinct forms, each offering a different relationship with the forest. The Pinecone Cabins are lightweight, modular, and elevated off the forest floor to protect tree roots, their tapering shapes inspired by natural forms. The Metasequoia Wood Cottages, also stilted, invite air and light to flow through double-pitched roofs and strategically placed skylights. For a more delicate presence, the Bamboo Huts sit at the forest’s edge, encased in woven bamboo façades that glow with filtered daylight and dissolve boundaries between indoors and out.
Each structure is an architectural response to its surroundings, carefully designed to heighten guests’ awareness of nature while minimizing human imprint.
Construction, too, reflected this commitment to sustainability. Teams conducted repeated on-site surveys to map out the location of every tree, adapting building plans in real time.
Natural materials like bamboo and wood, chosen for their low environmental footprint and sensory richness, imbue the interiors with warmth and authenticity. Exposed steel frames provide both transparency and adaptability, an honest architectural language that speaks to longevity and renewal.
The result is more than just a hotel. It’s a space of reflection, where the noise of city life gives way to the rustling of leaves and the calls of distant birds.
Dongmingshan Senyu Hotel isn’t about escape, it’s about reconnection: to nature, to stillness and perhaps to one’s own inner landscape.
In a world increasingly dominated by screens, schedules, and cityscapes, this hotel offers a refreshing counterpoint. For the modern traveller seeking more than just a break, for those craving meaning, beauty and environmental responsibility, GLA Architects’ forest resort presents an invitation, come, tread lightly and leave feeling renewed.