Case Study: Floating Air: Lone M Hotel and Stray Birds Prairie Hostels

Studio Qi’s work is generated predominantly in response to the natural world, landcape and wildlife. Studio principal Shanshan Qi explores and explains two projects: the Lone M Hotel, and the Stray Birds Prairie hostels. With The Lone M Hotel, she says, we intended to establish a subtle, lightweight relationship between the building and the site: the building rests gently among the Qinling Mountains, facing the cliff. The base of the building is slightly raised, and the "airflow" flowing through the Qinling Mountains passes through the base of the building and merges into the cliff, making the building seem to float on this airflow, like a capsule about to take off. The prairie hostels express the flexibility of form evolution from traditional Grassland Hostels.