Qinhuangdao Anaya Gold Coast

The Anlan Hotel at Aranya Golden Coast in Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao, designed by DDON, is set among the coast's coastal pines. Its design is recognized for a series of unusual moves: pushing the children's play area to the front, using a plain, unadorned texture, and building water features and the pool in exposed concrete. Anlan, meaning peaceful billows, comes from a classical text, describing calm water and, by extension, a peaceful era. To give the hotel the quiet, wind-rippled Anlan atmosphere, the design preserves the site's native robinia forest and pennisetum grass, weaving people into the existing environment. Constraints of environment, craft and cost led the team to deliberately adopt reverse strategies: a forward-placed children's zone, restrained material texture, and concrete water and pool, so that the coastal woodland itself, rather than ornamental design, becomes the project's character. The children's area being placed at the front, rather than hidden at the rear, allows families to move directly from arrival into play, while the raw concrete of water features and pool intentionally avoids polished resort clichés and lets the structure age honestly beside the pine needles and wild grasses. The overall mood is one of quiet repose, in which children's activity and still natural setting coexist without competing. Project details are limited in the source material.