Zhengzhou Clubhouse

This is a clubhouse for a large private company in Zhengzhou, China. The program includes reception, meeting, dining, and recreational areas, as well as private suites. The clubhouse is located on the second and third floors of an existing three-story building with a triangular footprint. The total area approximates 1,700 m2. The unique triangular floor plan and its core distribution restricted the design and functional layout, and we decided to make the new plan as free-form to accomodate with the existing structure.

The building is situated in one of many large-scale developments within Zhengzhou’s bustling contemporary city center. Surrounding buildings are all new, though eclectic in their use of styles and materials. To counter the busy, mixed palette of the exterior, we decided to make the interior palette as colorless as possible, making everything white to remove the sense of weight and ‘busyness” of the outside. And within this all-white palette, we introduce a vivid variety of materiality and texture. Each room has a unique form, with a different texture and pattern within the white palette. By giving particular characteristics to each room, we invite guests to develop a sense of “attachment” to individual spaces, amongst the overall neutrality of the clubhouse. The main hall with a double-height atrium, serves as a reception area and an event space. We treated the lower level ceiling as an upside-down landscape flowing continuously towards a large opening in the center, like a hole in a golf course, deliberately punching through an uneven surface. A special chandelier is installed in the upper level ceiling above the opening, enhancing an intimate and decorative feeling on the upper level, where private functions are located.

We also introduced a set of gate/threshold images of historic and contemporary styles, compiled from various Eastern and Western references, to bring an off-beat sensibility into the space. These images are intentionally treated as ‘fake’ information, and randomly mixed in forms of 2D and 3D representations. They are located sporadically, sometimes too densely arranged or cramped in between curving walls. This unusual arrangement of gates, floating in weightless and shadow-less space, creates a unique, mysterious atmosphere. The oscillation between neutral space and vivid materiality, large and small, distorted within a random combination of 2D and 3D, with hard lines and gentle curvatures, plain and decorative patterns, creates an unusual but pure impression of the clubhouse.