Rest amidst the rice fields. Rice Hill Resort Project

Dobrawa Bies

19 of February '21

Rice Hill Resort in Vietnam

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Stanislaw Czujkowski and Kornelius Wielechowski of the West Pomeranian University of Technology, in response to the "Rural Tourism Accommodation" competition task, created a design for a hotel resort in Vietnam. Their proposal consists of houses of varied shapes, following the form of rice terraces and hidden in the hillside.

The competition for students and young architects organized by Arquideas was for the design of a tourist center in Vietnam. Its goal was to create an accommodation facility for visitors who come to Mù Cang Chải in search of natural beauty. The area is famous for its vast rice fields, so the proposed facility had to relate to them in shape. The rice terrace fields of La Pan Tan, Che Cu Nha and Ze Xu Phinh have been recognized as a national landscape and attract both domestic and foreign tourists. The competition proposals were designed to emphasize the importance of the countryside, as well as to meet the needs of tourists, most of whom are photography enthusiasts who want to enjoy the beautiful views of the fields all year round.

The resort consists of private houses inscribed in a hill

stairway to heaven

The rice fields of Mù Cang Chải extend over 2200 hectares at the side of the mountain. They are narrow layers of terraces between 1 and 1.5 meters wide. Because of their shape, they have been called "stairs to heaven." The fields were designed by the Hmong people, in such a way that water flows through the rain terraces, taking advantage of the topography of the terrain.

The houses were designed to accommodate two to six people

The 5,600-square-meter plot of land on which the students' proposed hotel facility would be built is located in Mù Cang Chải District , north of the well-known Laptam Paradise resort. Designed by young architects , the resort consists of twenty-four private houses (with accommodations for two to six people) and a common building with various functions such as a restaurant, swimming pool, bar and sauna. The resort's picturesque location makes it the perfect place to stay not only for families or couples seeking relaxation, but also for photographers and artists. Thanks to the design of the separate facilities, each guest can enjoy a private view of the rice fields.

Each guest is assured privacy and beautiful views

hotel resort between rice fields

All the buildings and the communication between them were designed based on the terraced form of the rice fields and follow their curves. The shape of the buildings depends on the original layout of the rice terraces through which, no two houses will be found alike. The students' goal was to interfere as little as possible with the landscape, and they achieved this by raising selected levels of the terraces into the form of wooden canopies, or lowering others, thereby creating private home terraces.

The shape of the buildings is dependent on the form of the rice terraces

Since the individual terraces are separated by a distance of about one meter, communication between them is to be facilitated by a specially designed path. This path begins at the communal building, at the very top of the hill, and consists of off-road stairs leading to the individual cabins, wooden platforms and a simple chairlift.

A simple chairlift facilitates communication

A chairlift similar to those found on ski slopes facilitates access to individual facilities. Thanks to simple technology, it lowers the given seat to the level where the lodge is located and makes it possible to get to it, with the help of a wooden platform. The authors used local materials in the design, most of which are wood and bamboo. An important aspect was also to interfere as little as possible with the cultivation of rice, as a result, it still grows on most levels of the hill.

Read also about the design of the wooden tourist center by Inez Slugiewicz, for which she received an honorable mention in the same competition.