The Frame Awards jury has crowned a hostel-cum-library in rural China as the winning project in the latest round of Interiors of the Month.
Our March Interior of the Month winner combines two unexpected typologies: a capsule hostel and community library. To get there, one must make their way through the deep forests of Tonglu, in China’s Zhejiang province. There they’ll encounter the village of Qinglongwu, where the Atelier Tao+C-designed space is located. The firm renovated a traditional old house constructed from wood and mud walls, transforming it into a 10-room lodge centred by an expansive library and bookstore open to the public. Submitted in the category of Hotel, the Capsule Hostel and Bookstore Qinglongwu achieved a total mark of 8.81, celebrated very highly in the creativity criteria, the end score of which was a remarkable 9.47.
The home is built to Passivhaus standards, is extremely air-tight with only 1.2 air changes per hour and uses passive solar design to maximise sun penetration in winter and shade the interiors in summer. It has a highly thermally efficient envelope, is cross-ventilated and harnesses the existing buildings thermal mass.
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