Lost Villa. Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel | WJ STUDIO

Lost Villa. Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel  locates at northeastern Zhoushan Islands, Zhejiang Province, approximately 2.5 hours by ferry from Zhoushan Main Island. Huanglong Island locates at the core development area of Shengsi overal plan, but the transportation conditions, which mainly rely on ferries, have limited appeal for potential tourist spending. However, Huanglong Island is facing a significant challenge related to rural depopulation. Without new industrial investment, the consequences of aging and declining vitality have become apparent in recent years.

Based on in-depth consideration and planning of Huanglong Island’s overall positioning, the hotel became the starting point for creating a short-term tourist destination. The Lighthouse Hotel is located at Dongjutou Cape, the easternmost point of the island. The original terrain of the site presents complex elevation changes, with a maximum drop of nearly 30 meters, and is covered with rocks and native vegetation.

The architectural design takes “minimal intervention” as its core principle, breaking down the building volume into interlocking staircase-like modules and anchoring them between three native protected reefs using independent foundations to respond to the natural landscape and village texture. The building is divided into two groups, A and B, connected by an outdoor walkway that descends along the ridge, creating a unique island experience for visitors.

Block A is centered around a vast, open rock hall. The weathered, pristine reef stones are preserved at the base of the building, which acts like a “canopy” to protect them, allowing visitors to get up close to the texture of the reef stones. The design blurs the absolute boundaries between “inside” and “outside,” making the space itself a medium that guides the viewer's perception.

The layout of the guest room units in Block B draws inspiration from the spatial organization patterns of existing villages in the island region. The guest rooms are composed of three relatively independent building volumes, with their spatial orientation and window design strategically responding to the differing sunrise directions in winter and summer to frame specific external landscape views.

In this project, the intervention does not involve covering the past with steel and concrete but, instead, it transforms the existing local living and production scenes into contemporary narratives that are experiential, empathetic, and sustainable, turning the crisis of island depopulation into an opportunity for a new form of island-specific ecological tourism development centered on deep experiential engagement.

Project Information

Project Name: Lost Villa. Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel

Project Location: Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province

Completion Year: 2025

Project Type: Hotel    

Building Area: 5,000 m²    

Client: Zhoushan Shengsi Lost Villa Hotel Management Co., Ltd.   

Master Planning & Architectural Design & Interior Conceptual Design: WJ STUDIO   

Website: www.wjstudio.cn

Email: brand@wjstudio.cn

Principal Designer: Hu Zhile   

Design Team: Jin Yiran, Yang Xi, Liu Yu'ao, Huang Shufei   

Constructual Design: Peng Zhu   

Water Supply And Drainage Design: Wu Xu ‍  

Electrical Design: Fang Weigang   

Heating And Ventilation Design: Zhou Jie   

Conceptual Planning: Urban Fabric  

Interior Design: SZ-Architects

Construction Company: Shanghai Yeyouzhu Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd.  

Project Photography: Tian Fangfang, Zhang Xi  

Video Shooting: Zhang Xi, STUDIO FANG  

Video Editing: Zhang Xi