A striking new architectural landmark has emerged atop Ancient Spring Town in Zunhua, Tangshan, China. The Rock, also known as Cloud Center, designed by Shanghai-based Wutopia Lab, sits at the highest point of the development, serving as a visual marker for the entire area. Commissioned by Financial Street (Zunhua) Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., the comprehensive project encompasses architecture, interior design, and conceptual landscape planning, all developed by the innovative design practice.
Positioned 20 meters above the main hotel entrance, the building functions as both a landmark and a hospitality facility housing essential amenities. The structure contains a swimming pool, gymnasium, and outdoor hot spring pools, while also supplying hot spring water to nearby villas throughout the complex. The building's strategic location takes advantage of the site's northern edge, which features a natural cliff offering unobstructed panoramic views of the Great Wall of China.
The unique topography of the site directly influenced the architectural design concept, inspiring the team to create a form reminiscent of the "flying rock" motif found in traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Wutopia Lab reinterpreted this classical element by projecting the building outward from the cliff face, carefully shaping its mass to suggest lightness and weightlessness despite its substantial volume. This approach creates the illusion that the structure is floating above the ancient town below.
The interior design follows what the architects describe as "caving logic," where spaces are carved out from the overall form to create functional areas, most notably the central pool hall and other amenities. A strategically placed 26-square-meter skylight positioned directly above the swimming pool serves as the primary source of natural daylight, creating dynamic light reflections that continuously shift across the interior surfaces throughout the day. The building's circulation system includes an innovative spiraling rooftop ramp that extends the architectural form while carefully framing views of the surrounding mountainous landscape.
The exterior cladding system consists of curved metal panels shaped into a distinctive pebble-like form, a design choice that effectively reduces both the complexity and cost of fabrication. Horizontal lines dominate the facade texture, creating a rippling effect across the building's surface. Angular edges, which naturally resulted from the two-dimensional panel assembly process, were thoughtfully incorporated into the overall design language rather than being concealed or minimized.
The building's outer shell operates as an independent cladding system that completely surrounds a waterproof, insulated structural core. This separation strategy allowed the architects to integrate the distinctive ramp feature without compromising or disrupting the interior layouts. Service areas, which occupy more than half of the building's total floor area, are strategically embedded into the mountain itself to maintain visual balance between the structure and the natural cliff face.
Given the site's Grade-8 seismic rating, even modest cantilevers presented significant engineering challenges that required innovative solutions. Structural reinforcement systems were carefully integrated into the curtain wall framework to maintain the building's intended sculptural form while meeting strict seismic safety requirements. The engineering team worked closely with the architects to ensure that safety considerations enhanced rather than compromised the design vision.
The pool hall's interior showcases a continuous soft grey-white surface finish, featuring seamless curved transitions between walls and ceiling that eliminate harsh edges and create a cave-like atmosphere. The carefully chosen neutral color palette emphasizes the changing qualities of natural light throughout the day and highlights the dynamic reflections created by the swimming pool's surface. Northern-facing curtain walls and the central skylight provide abundant natural illumination during daylight hours, while a sophisticated artificial lighting system transforms the space into a dramatic environment after dark.
The gymnasium, located on the building's upper level, overlooks the main pool area and frames spectacular views of the surrounding terrain and distant mountains. Outdoor hot spring pools are strategically screened by carefully selected vegetation to ensure user privacy while maintaining long-distance views toward the historic Great Wall. This balance between intimacy and openness reflects the project's broader design philosophy of harmonizing built and natural environments.
The elliptical layout of the pool hall required exceptionally precise coordination of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems throughout the design and construction process. Complex challenges including dehumidification systems, HVAC integration, and curtain wall structural requirements were successfully resolved using advanced Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology to address the building's complex three-dimensional geometry. The waterproofing design was developed through extensive large-scale sectional detailing and continuous on-site coordination during the construction phase to ensure long-term performance.
The Rock, or Cloud Center, by Wutopia Lab represents a successful integration of functional hospitality programming with a distinctive formal presence in the mountainous landscape. The project demonstrates how contemporary architecture can respond sensitively to challenging topography and cultural context while incorporating sophisticated structural, material, and technical strategies. Through its innovative design approach, the building serves not only as a luxury amenity facility but also as a new landmark that celebrates both traditional Chinese landscape aesthetics and cutting-edge architectural innovation.
