In the age of globalization, China has been keen on creating internationalized images for the country. China has become a test field for different architecture styles, mostly western styles. The cultural identity of China has been sacrificed for the rapid expansion of the modernized city in a Pan-western manner. Hence, the topic is hotly debated between regionalism and internationalism in architectural design. How can architectural design succeed in balancing different influences of western modernism and traditional Chinese culture?
Thus, critical regionalism, as a specific architectural method, provides a unique approach in adapting western modernism to a Chinese cultural-specific local context and content. The study of critical regionalism has been rich in shaping the theoretical background and helping the author to establish her theoretical frame in this thesis. At first, the thesis researches and rethinks about critical regionalism, discovering certain practical references. On the next, the thesis intends to develop a practical design strategy for the design project. Based on the site and regional culture, the thesis attempts to explore a new design language, which is not only local but also satisfies modern needs. During the process of researching critical regionalism and local culture, the thesis extracts meaningful design elements from vernacular architecture and attempts to implement them into the project design in question. The objective of this re- search is to design a hot spring hotel, trying to combine the natural and regional feature with- out missing its attributes in satisfying potential customers’ physical and emotional needs, in a specific Chinese region, namely Ningxiang County, Hunan Province
