Youyi Bay Community: Mixed-Use Architecture in Qinhuangdao by genarchitects

The Youyi Bay Community in Qinhuangdao, designed by genarchitects, is a landmark project that combines residential, hospitality, retail, and cultural functions into a single cohesive neighborhood. Completed in 2023, the development covers 14,959 m² and features the Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel, the Juanzong Apartment, and a network of vibrant public plazas. More than an architectural project, it represents a new model of mixed-use architecture in China, seamlessly integrating tourism, culture, and daily life.

A Coastal Community for Culture and Living

Situated at the southern entrance of the Aranya North Shore Community, Youyi Bay serves as the central hub for public activity in Qinhuangdao’s coastal zone. The city, long recognized as a cultural and artistic destination near Beijing, attracts families, freelancers, and artists seeking both leisure and creative inspiration.

The architects envisioned Youyi Bay as a public-oriented community space, breaking away from rigid urban grids to create open squares, courtyards, and pedestrian pathways. With its combination of plazas, arcades, hotels, apartments, and retail, the development establishes a dynamic social and cultural heart for residents and visitors alike.

Spatial Planning and Architectural Strategy

The complex adopts a U-shaped hotel and an L-shaped apartment building, arranged diagonally to frame two trapezoidal squares and a triangular courtyard. This spatial strategy softens the rigidity of the block while enriching the hierarchy of public spaces. The ground floor of the apartments hosts retail arcades, while the hotel and surrounding buildings enclose plazas that naturally connect pedestrian routes.

At the center of this system lies the square shared by the hotel, apartments, and the Chapel of Music—a gathering space that anchors the southern zone of the community.

Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel: A Shared Living Room

The Mi Casa Su Casa Club Hotel is designed as the “shared living room” of the community. Its open-plan ground and second floors house cultural functions including galleries, forums, retail, and event spaces. With a two-story-high forum that opens into the courtyard, the hotel becomes a civic platform for lectures, concerts, and exhibitions.

Guest rooms reflect the identity of a creative retreat. Each unit includes a spacious desk, bookshelf, sofa, and balcony, merging the comfort of a private home with the practicality of a studio. Rooms are arranged around an inner courtyard or facing outward toward the plaza and sea, offering varied atmospheres. Two loft-style corner suites crown the building, resembling castle towers and providing expansive views.

Materially, the hotel embraces raw textures. Its façade, made of rustic cement bricks, creates subtle tonal variations resembling limestone. Exposed ribbed beams and mineral-pigmented concrete interiors further enhance the tactile quality of the architecture, merging solidity with warmth.

Juanzong Apartment: Flexible Living for Modern Residents

The Juanzong Apartment is tailored for long-stay residents, freelancers, and multi-family groups. The ground floor hosts diverse businesses, including bakeries, tea houses, bookstores, and pop-up retail stores, reinforcing its mixed-use vibrancy. The triangular backyard pool doubles as a performance stage during community events, blurring the line between living and cultural activity.

Each apartment features a spacious studio-like living room with double-height ceilings, balconies, and flexible layouts for working, creating, and socializing. Exposed concrete ceilings finished with a thin white topcoat preserve material honesty while ensuring comfort. Bedrooms are oriented toward inner courtyards, while living spaces face public squares, balancing privacy and openness.

The façade adopts light green precast terrazzo panels, chosen for their durability and visual refinement. The terrazzo’s mineral composition and polished texture give the building a contemporary yet timeless identity within the coastal landscape.

Public Spaces as Cultural Connectors

At the urban scale, Youyi Bay’s public plazas and courtyards create a continuous network of shared spaces. By weaving pedestrian paths through squares, courtyards, and arcades, the design allows residents and visitors to experience architecture as a social fabric. This framework encourages cultural events, community gatherings, and everyday interactions, strengthening the sense of belonging.

The Youyi Bay Community in Qinhuangdao sets a benchmark for mixed-use architecture in China, merging living, working, tourism, and culture into one cohesive design. With its combination of hotel, apartments, retail, and public plazas, the project by genarchitects transforms the coastal community into a thriving cultural hub—one that is open, adaptable, and deeply human-centered.

All photographs are works of Shengliang Su