Vector Architects: Gong Dong and the Art of Building

Gong Dong and Vector Architects are in the vanguard of a new generation of Chinese architects who are revealing extraordinary approaches to building and design that marry tradition with an ever-more-thrilling modernism. Gong Dong’s architecture evocatively combines features of the modern with lessons learned from China’s old culture of craftsmanship while giving utmost attention to the experiential qualities of design. Beyond great facility, the firm is celebrated for exploring the possibilities of sustainability and eco-sensitive construction. Recently featured in the exhibition Reuse, Renew, Recycle: Recent Architecture from China at New York’s MoMA, Dong’s work was singled out for the Alila Yangshio Hotel. A readaptation of an old industrial site and former sugar factory near the Chinese city of Guilin, known for its dramatic landscape of precipitous limestone karst hills, the hotel embraces the extraordinary site, with pools that reflect the stunning surrounds, while also offering great comfort and ease to guests. The book presents the firm’s most breathtaking work, from its celebrated Seashore Chapel, which suggests a marriage of the cerebral power of Le Corbusier and the refined magic of Tadao Ando while making a serene and unique statement of its own, to the magical Captain’s House, a renovation of a modernist dwelling set atop a cliff overlooking a fishing village and the sea. This elegantly illustrated and beautifully designed book is the first in English to comprehensively document this exceptionally high quality, quietly rich, and greatly rewarding architecture.