The story of Amanyangyun began with the construction of a dam in Jiangxi Province, 700 kms away from Shanghai. Ancient villages and forests were threatened by the rising waters. The project owner Mr Ma Da Dong organised a rescue mission. The best houses were carefully documented, disassembled and transported to Shanghai along with several thousand camphor trees.
Kerry Hill Architects has designed the masterplan as a contemporary walled village with the ancient houses and trees forming an important ingredient of Amanyangyun. The repurposed antique buildings are given a new life within a modern architectural setting. The completed first phase of the project consists of the resort hotel, the Nanshufang cultural centre, 13 hotel villas and 30 villas for private ownership. Kerry Hill Architects has led the design of the project at all scales, from the urban-scale masterplan through the architectural design into the fine details of interiors, furniture artwork and accessories.
From day one the client was determined that Amanyangyun should display the best of contemporary design, that it should become a vibrant forward-looking community, not a nostalgic vision of the past. This insistence on authenticity has guided the entire design process. The aim was to create architecture that is rooted in its place and time, that has a ‘sense of belonging’. At Amanyangyun this sense of belonging is achieved in the composed tension between the old and the new and in the common experiential qualities that weave both together into an integrated whole.
