Miwo Suichang Zhejiang

Guesthouses — Sleeping & Living Spaces — Custom platform beds in reclaimed elm, their timber sourced from dismantled Qing dynasty houses within a 50-kilometer radius of the site. Each bed frame was constructed using traditional Chinese joinery — no metal fasteners — with the timber left unfinished except for a single coat of natural wax. Upholstered headboards in undyed hand-woven cotton, the fabric produced by a women's weaving cooperative in the neighboring county. Bedside tables in the same reclaimed elm, each with a single soft-close drawer and an open shelf for a book, a cup of tea, a stone found on a hike. Open wardrobe systems in blackened steel, their minimal presence a quiet contrast to the warmth of the rammed earth walls.

Tea Pavilions — Low timber tea tables in reclaimed elm, their surfaces hand-planed to a subtle undulation that catches morning light. Floor cushions in hand-woven indigo cotton, arranged around the tables in configurations that shift with the season and the number of guests. Custom shelving units for tea ware, built from the same reclaimed elm, with integrated warm LED lighting that illuminates each cup and pot like an object of contemplation. The pavilions are open to the valley on three sides, and every piece of furniture within them is designed to acknowledge this openness — low enough not to obstruct the view, solid enough to anchor the body to the earth.

Communal Dining Room — A single long table in solid reclaimed elm, seating 18 guests at full capacity. The table was constructed from two continuous planks, book-matched to reveal the mirrored grain of a tree that grew for more than a century in the valley below. Dining chairs in blackened ash with hand-woven rush seats, their design a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Zhejiang farmhouse chair. A custom sideboard in the same reclaimed elm holds tableware and linens, its sliding doors crafted without metal tracks — wood running against wood, polished smooth by hand.

Outdoor Terraces & Viewing Platforms — Simple timber benches in reclaimed fir, their design reduced to a single plank supported by two stone blocks quarried from the site itself. These benches are placed at four points along the ridge line, each positioned to frame a specific view: the morning mist rising from the valley, the late afternoon light on the opposite slope, the first stars above the bamboo canopy, the silhouette of the mountain at moonrise.

All timber specified as locally reclaimed elm, fir, and ash, sourced within a 50-kilometer radius of Suichang. No new-growth timber was used. The reclaimed wood carries the marks of its previous life — nail holes, saw marks, the dark tide-lines of centuries-old ink — and these were preserved as a deliberate material narrative.

Traditional Chinese joinery was used exclusively for all bed frames, tables, and shelving: mortise and tenon, dovetail tongue and groove, mitered bridle joints. No metal fasteners appear in any visible location. The joinery was executed by Dual Jade's senior artisans in collaboration with a local master carpenter who has spent four decades restoring ancestral halls in the surrounding villages.

All upholstery fabrics were sourced from regional textile cooperatives: undyed cotton and indigo cotton, hand-woven on wooden looms. The fabrics were left untreated — no flame retardants, no stain repellents — at the explicit request of the client, who sought a patina of use to develop naturally over time.

The tea pavilion shelving was custom-designed with integrated warm LED lighting that operates on a dimming curve synchronized with the circadian rhythm of the valley — brightening with the morning and softening toward candlelight levels by evening.

All outdoor benches were designed to be disassembled into two components — plank and stones — and reassembled without tools, allowing seasonal repositioning as the light and views shift through the year.