Kunming Golf Club and Resort is set within a beautiful part of the North West of Yunnan Province,China. The Golf course is moulded into the foothills of the Jade Dragon Snow
Mountain of Lijiang but the client required a design brief for recreation, health and family. Part of this design brief was the new design of a Golf Club and Resort that would be a ‘symbol’ and ‘destination’ for people visiting the site.

Our design enhanced the brief by introducing cultural and sustainable design to the site and its buildings. Adopting traditional methods of sustainable architecture we re-invented the ‘Ancient Yunnan Village’ design that was an ‘efficiently compact’ environment and massing that responded to the terrain and local annual climate. We felt it necessary to embrace the ethnic diversity of the province by evolving a design with a language of layering surfaces and texturing them enriching the visual and tactile experience.

The project design approach took a instinctive direction by bringing together the massing. We wanted to avoid scattered annex buildings and long walks between functions so the initial sketches brought together these needs and created a contemporary ‘village’ under one main building and chalet volume.

This Main Building required approximately 11,000 sq. of accommodation and all the necessary golf club facilities of reception, changing rooms, pro shop and caddy and golf buggy areas. This is located to the South of the Building next to the ‘putting green and preparation areas’. Above this area are the entertainment facilities to host events and dining which take advantage of the breath-taking panoramic views of the surrounding area and mountains.

The hotel is all located to the North of the site. It is split between main hotel rooms and chalet ‘style’ accommodation to the upper part of the site. This caters more for the family as the rooms are larger and have greater access to ground level for the children to enjoy. The main building we lifted to create a ‘super canopy’ that would generate a micro climate which could perform in a hot typical climate. It encouraged air movement and shade providing a comfortable environment through it’s shade and internal courtyards. This as a result creates a community for both day and night for golfers, guests and the events the location offers.

The massing is respectful to the environment and it’s terrain by attempting a seemliness and blend into the landscape with the forms and pitch of the architecture. The structure is grounded by the concrete cores and a steel framed structure hangs from these anchor points. This structural approach makes the ‘floating mass’ possible, cost effective and the build ability realistic in this part of China. The bold massing approach allowed sustainability to play a large part in the performance of this building. Compact and with spaces that have functional relationships created a dynamic mechanical engineering approach that saves energy and excessive equipment loading. The passive performance is celebrated through the initial concept design of the ‘Ancient Yunnan Village’ and its combination of shade, air movement and layered spaces.