Creative design of "Future Grassland" homestay in Hangjin Banner

The Future Grassland guesthouse design in Hangjin Banner, by MAT Super Architecture Office, is sited at Bayinbulage Gacha in Xini Town, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, and proposes two complementary schemes that reinterpret the Mongolian yurt as a contemporary architectural type. The first, Grassland Home, takes the traditional yurt as its formal prototype and threads a spiraling ramp through an entry foyer, restaurant, living room and five guest rooms arranged across two levels, opening onto an enclosed bonfire courtyard oriented toward the night sky. The gently rising ramp joins earth to sky in a single continuous gesture, translating the nomadic cosmology of heaven and earth into a built promenade. Exterior and interior walls are finished in white coarse-grain stucco, echoing the chromatic traditions of the steppe while lending the retreat the rustic, grounded materiality expected of a countryside hostelry. To suit the cold northern climate, the north facade is largely sealed while the south opens broadly toward the grassland, framing the horizontal expanse of the landscape from the living room and guest terraces. The second scheme, Nomad Home, is a petal-shaped cluster assembled from memories of traditional nomadic huts; six small pavilions, each housing an independent program of foyer, dining or guest room, gather around a central sunken hearth that doubles as the guesthouse's main public living room. Above the hearth floats a circular open-air courtyard, admitting ring-shaped daylight that spills into the heart of the building. Curved roofs, rising at their edges and dipping at the center, channel rain and sun toward the floating courtyard and symbolize a dialogue with the firmament. Dark split-stone masonry wraps the exterior, while interior public spaces are articulated in stucco, micro-cement and split stone, reinforcing a rugged, archaic materiality that connects visitors with the deep memory of nomadic life.