Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2022
Skyboat Cafe and WalkOn Glass
by Xin Yuan
- A' Design Award 2022 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: XinY structural consultants
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 32,161
- Verification code 49CE71BA4F · Verify this award
About Skyboat Cafe and WalkOn Glass
Skyboat is a two-storey building set above a 613 metre deep sinkhole in Leye, China. Hotel rooms are placed on the ground floor, a cafe on the first floor and a viewing platform on the roof. The platform includes a walk-on glass floor measuring 10 by 12.5 metres. The building spans the narrow passageway at the top of the sinkhole and cantilevers 34 metres and 22 metres to each side of the mountain ridge. A low centre of gravity allows the structure to balance itself. Only five supports are used, which limits damage to the local plants.
XinY's Skyboat Cafe and WalkOn Glass represents an extraordinary achievement in landscape-integrated architecture, where the built form enters into profound dialogue with the natural sublime. Perched upon a forested mountain precipice and extending boldly into a vast sea of clouds, this steel-and-glass structure exemplifies contemporary approaches to experiential architecture that privilege phenomenological encounter over mere shelter. The design appears to draw upon multiple traditions: the contemplative viewing platforms of East Asian mountain temple complexes, the transparent modernist pavilions pioneered by mid-twentieth-century masters, and the organic, biomorphic vocabularies that have characterized adventurous structural experimentation in recent decades. The sinuous plan configuration suggests a vessel or creature in repose, its curved spine and extended observation arm creating dynamic spatial sequences that guide visitors through progressively more dramatic encounters with the surrounding void. Technical accomplishment is evident throughout: the delicate steel framework achieves remarkable spans while maintaining visual lightness, the extensive glazing dissolves boundaries between interior comfort and exterior immensity, and the warm timber deck surfaces provide tactile and chromatic warmth within the crystalline envelope. The work engages timeless themes of human aspiration toward transcendence, the desire to inhabit thresholds between known and unknown realms, and architecture's capacity to intensify awareness of natural phenomena. The surrounding landscape, with its successive mountain ridges dissolving into atmospheric haze and the dramatic cloud sea obscuring the valley depths, transforms this functional structure into a meditation on impermanence and beauty. Visitors might consider how architecture can serve not merely practical functions but also facilitate profound contemplative experiences at the intersection of human making and natural grandeur.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The structure cantilevers 36m over the 613m deep sinkhole. The top of the sinkhole is extremely narrow which can only accommodate a small passageway. Skyboat is proposed to span over the passageway and cantilever out to each side of the mountain ridge. Similar to the tumbler toys, it is proposed to lower the structure centre of gravity and utilize the minimum area (10metres by 30metres), in which way, the self-balance of the structure is therefore achieved.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- two-storey building consisting of hotel rooms at the ground floor, a café at the first floor and a roof viewing platform which contains a 10metre-by-12.5metre walk-on glass floor. The building comprises a construction area of 495m2 and covers a plan dimension of 10metres by 80metres. Both ends of the building cantilevers out by 34metres and 22metres respectively. The total steel weight used is 438 tonne.
- Tags
- Skyboat, XinY, Glass floor, Cantilever, Leye, Dashiwei
- Production Technology
- There are only five supports proposed. This minimizes the damages to the local vegetation.
To protect the local plants and rivers, hanging falsework was used during the construction stage and to have the structural members installed by pieces. - Design Challenge
- The structure cantilevers 36m over the 613m deep sinkhole. The top of the sinkhole（the site）is extremely narrow which can only accommodate a small passageway.
A long crack at the site indicates the site is not stable. Apart from grouting the existing crack, it is also proposed to have the key struts at each ends of the building inclining towards the ridge, the horizontal component forces from which then provided the embracing forces to the ridge and hence improved the stability of the site. - Project Duration
- The project started on 2018 in Leye China and finished on 2019.
- Operation Flow
- Visitors can enjoy coffee in the beauty of nature, or they can walk on the glass floor above the 600-meter deep pit to experience the shock of their heartbeats.
- Research
- The structural system and component arrangements were adapted to the force distribution, perfectly aligned with the elegant architectural geometry.
By increasing the key strut lengths, the pre-cambering of the front cantilever structure is then achieved, which can compensate the deflections under the dead loads and some of the live loads. This also protects the glazings from large deformations. - Inspiration
- A big goose, a e tumbler toy.
The long crack at the top of the ridge indicates the site is not stable. Apart from grouting the existing crack, it is also proposed to have the key struts at each ends of the building inclining towards the ridge, the horizontal component forces from which then provided the embracing forces to the ridge and hence improved the stability of the site. - Image Credits
- Image#1: Photographer Li Jin, Yongheng,2019.
Image#2: Photographer Yongheng, Yongheng,2019.
Image#3: Photographer Yongheng, Yongheng,2019.
Image#4: Photographer Xin Yuan, XinY,2019.
Image#5: Photographer Yongheng, Yongheng,2019.
Video Credits: Yongheng