Fushengyu Spa Building | AIM Architecture

As we look back on our last 10 years of building, planning, and designing in China, certain projects stand out. Tucked deep into the green hills of Sichuan, the Fushengyu spa building is well worth revisiting. The scenery alone is stunning, and the building itself a bold example of the kind of full-discipline projects AIM has brought to life.

AIM was responsible for the architecture, planning, design, and interior design for this natural hot springs resort located in the foothills of Mianyang, Sichuan. People visit spas for rest and relaxation, but we wanted the design to offer an opportunity to reimagine nature and landscape, and our relationship to both.

The spa building has various functions that required a dynamic, layered approach, and ultimately operates as a beautiful public space. Wrapped around a hill that looks out into the heart of the resort, there is a warm, inclusive feeling but the vantage points are 360 degrees looking out – a shifting, changing scene with each view.

The rear façade bends along with the hill it is built into, maintaining a natural flow. The wood used is Merbeu.

The striking beige material featuring prominently on the front façade is a natural choice – literally. Walking in the mountains around the site, we found these huge local rocks, and cut them into smaller stones. Flushed and made smooth by the rivers in the area over the course of years, they were a perfect medium to bridge the building to the earth it sits upon.

The river stones are in the landscape architecture and design, and we even compressed them into pebble tiles for the walls, floors, and pools. The choice to use river stone emphasizes the frame of the foothills and natural bodies of water, and highlights the contemporary architecture and design of the spa itself.

Working with a team of local builders, we cut the stones into tiny pieces, and mixed it with dirt and mud to get rammed earth, which comprises the front façade.

This kind of ‘dirty minded’ thinking is both creative and cost effective – and the result is a building that ages naturally, and beautifully, with its surroundings.

Need to photoshop the black marks?

This project is a landmark building for AIM, one that represents the core of our philosophy – context and material matter. This building makes a statement on what it means to build sustainably with the land, not simply on it.

Service scope: architecture and interior

Design team: Wendy Saunders, Vincent de Graaf, German Roig, Ivan Yu, Leonardo Colluci, Allan Yang, Claudia Juhre, Zoe Zhu, June Deng, Andrew Irwin, Shelley Mock, Dongker, Liat Goldman, Ted Zhang, Kno Zhuang, Daniel Duan, Jiao Yan