Perched above the ancient springs town of Zunhua, China, the Rock – Cloud Center hotel and spa was dreamed up by Wutopia Lab as a reinterpretation of a traditional Chinese landscape formation, the flying rock. Rising from the mountainous terrain as if suspended in air, the three-story, otherworldly structure is wrapped in a waterproof steel shell that encases the hotel lobby, swimming pool, and gym.

To achieve its visual lightness, expansive utility areas are buried directly into the mountain, while a zigzagging landscape path threads through the site, connecting the hotel’s villas housed in a separate building.

“Because the site is a small hillside rising even higher than the hotel’s main building, we chose a more natural form to express our respect for the surrounding landscape,” says Yu Ting, founder of Wutopia Lab. “The project is located in Tangshan, an area with seismic requirements for magnitude-8 earthquakes. Achieving the cantilevered effect required repeated structural calculations.”

The fluid, curved exterior of the Cloud Center gives way to a cave-like interior. To prevent the space from being too dark, a 280-square-foot skylight was cut into the ceiling, joined by windows punctuating the northern curtain wall. Together, they flood the swimming pool with sunlight, casting rippling reflections across the walls that bring the space to life with movement.

The design team knew this aperture would define the experience “when we moved into the rendering phase and saw light and shadow falling across the pool,” Ting recalls. Above, the gym peers down into the water and outward toward the surrounding rock formation.

Outdoors, hot spring pools are nestled into vegetation, offering views of the Great Wall in the distance. For Ting, the pool remains the heart of the project, “because it embodies our vision of what a retreat should be.”

This article originally appeared in HD’s January 2026 issue.