On the beach of Shimei Bay, known as the "most beautiful" beach in Hainan, there is a 4,000-year-old vatica mangachapoi forest community stretches along the coastline. It has been protected by the government from the Qing Dynasty Guangxu years, and is one of the world's last three major coastal vatica mangachapoi forests. Covering nearly 120,000 square meters, Westin Shimei Bay Resort is located here. The unique geographical environment has been constantly providing design inspirations for YANG.In line with Westin Hotel’s brand positioning─nature, relaxation, energy and novelty, “Exploring the Vatica mangachapoi Forest” is chosen as the theme.Plantsand natural distributions of water in the vatica mangachapoi forest are ingeniously moved into the hotel lobby. Natural patches, trunks and other elements, extracted from vatica mangachapoi, are copied onscreens, carpets, and walls.
The hotel lobby takesup an area of nearly 10,000 square meters and is 23 meters in height. With such a huge space, YANG was inspired by the towering old trees of the vatica mangachapoi forest, building up 36 huge concrete "trunks" in the lobby.As pillars of the lobby space,the "trunks"are covered byaluminum sheets with natural wooden textures. At the same time, passageways built between "trunks"formed up an air corridor, which not only solve the problem of excessive space scale, but also reproduce a mysterious sense of the jungle.
To ensure the air outlet of the lobby roof is scientific and reasonable enough,designersoptimize the plan by repeatedly testingthe directions and speeds of local wind, and ultimately come out with the perfect presentation of the magnificent open hotel lobby. This fully open lobby introduces natural sunlight and fresh air into the hotel, and also broadens sight range and landscape space. Sink-style bar counters and seats are deliberately builtin the lobby bar, so as to make visions flush with the sea level, and to create a scene of people sitting in the sea. With flowers and trees scattered around, Savana grey marble rough surfaces with rich natural textures and local volcanic rocks are widely used in the lobby space, making people feel like standing amid the rain forest.
Stone materials with natural textures in combination with well-arranged rock modeling create a straightforward natural atmosphere in the Banquet Hall, and guide the light pass through the image oflayers of branches and leaves. The usage of aluminum punching materials is a breakthrough in banquet hall ceilingdesign, making red, blue, purple, and green LED lightspouring down layers of"foliage", so as to create a change of colors and a dreamlike experience.
Designers apply the colors of the vatica mangachapoi forest in nearly 400 rooms to produce different situational experiences, adding up morenatural intelligence and vitality into the spaces. Vatica mangachapoi forests’mottled colors and the patterns of branches penetrate through the design of the carpets and decorative paintings, and with the original colored furniture and grass green pillows, it creates a tranquil feeling of sleeping right in the middle of the forest.
In terms of the overall design of the hotel, YANG also stress a lot on the power of cultures inspace, while creating abundantnatural atmospheres. Mesh screens in the coastline restaurant which resemble the ancient fishing net, decorations like sailing ships, shells and other marine elements ornaments are telling distant stories of this seacoast; Made of Hainan tiles, the wall of the Specialty restaurant contains a lot of highlights and lowlights and thus becomes a quaint and graceful existence. Patterns of the Li people painted on the wall also fully display the local customs. The modesty and leisurely rattan screens and seats in the Chinese Restaurant are hand-madeproducts of the local craftsmen.The simple and casual line design of the all day dining restaurant, togetherwith rhythmedwooden texture grilles, form up a coordinated sequential feature, which not only encompasses traditional Chinese beauty, but is also rich in senses of holiday leisure .
Being exposed to the nature and wandering between cultures. Once again, YANG redefinesthe tradition of designing.By “exiling”most of the hotel space to nature, YANGsuccessfullycombine the architecture, the landscape, and the interior design into a harmonious one. As the world's largest Westin hotel, the Westin Shimei Bay Resort is going to be a perfect example of design and nature combination, and a new milestone for Starwood resorts hotels.
