The hotel is situated in the southern Lion Mountain Park in Suzhou, looking into Shishan (Lion) Mountain across the lake. It will become integral to the Shishan Scenic Area’s landscape system.

Suzhou is celebrated as a garden city for its deeply integrated urban and natural landscapes. Inspired by this urban identity, the design infuses oriental garden aesthetics into a modern hotel. It presents “a garden within a garden” by the lakeside park, weaving internal and external landscapes. The master plan draws a central axis towards the mountain, connecting the entrance, lobby, and all-day restaurant. The guest rooms, featuring villa clusters scatter along the axis’s two sides, offer mountain and lake views. The park’s water is introduced into the site, further blending the internal and external landscapes.

The Jiangnan settlement creates diverse and dynamic spaces by blending architectural simplicity with experiential richness. Embracing this unique spatial characteristic, the design adopts gable-roof structures ranging from 1 to 3 stories as the primary architectural motif. Roof width, length, and placement variations establish an intriguing interplay between buildings and courtyards. Within a disciplined layout, the architecture encompasses courtyards with valleys, platforms, and waterscapes at different elevations. These courtyards intertwine and nestle together, offering a journey of evolving spatial experiences.

The facades reinterpret traditional aesthetics using contemporary materials. Combining clay panel curtain walls and hollowed-out brick walls creates an artistic tribute to the classical Su-style fences. The woodgrain-transfer-printed aluminum curtain wall, carved aluminum windows, and decorative stainless-steel mesh embody a translucent texture, evoking the ethereal atmosphere of a garden bathed in the soft glow of lanterns at night.