Globalization makes daily life and also buildings look more or less the same from place to place. Most of the chain hotels are boring and lack of character. To advance the identity and character of the hotel chain in a local and international perspective, the design principle of this Ibis hotel, a world-wide chain hotel service provider, is based on local and historic context, bringing about an interesting interplay with urban scene in Hong Kong

The huge advertising signage makes up major parts of the Hong Kong streetscape. It forms numerous layers in an arbitrary way with different orientations and colours. The ‘juxtaposition’ shapes out the ‘City of Mosaic’ and gives a strong dynamic character to Hong Kong.

The building is at a corner site facing two streets. One is a busy street with lots of advertising signage, the other a quiet precinct of traditional Chinese trading business. The façade design responses to these two different characters. The elevation facing the busy street is with different shapes of colour glazing echoing the energetic character of the street of signage. The elevation facing the quiet side is cladding with golden colour Chinese ink inscription meaning “Guest House” on black colour background, which recalls the traditional Chinese signage character. Atop the mosaic podium is a tree, another symbol of Hong Kong local character as trees are commonly found growing on the roof line of the downtown city.

The hotel exterior is set to be a new landmark and icon in the area, and an interesting streetscape to blend in with both modernity and heritage of Hong Kong whilst enlivening Sheung Wan as an up-and-coming tourist area. The outstanding design fully echoes with the Hotel‘s benchmark for the corporate up-branding as well as being one of Ibis’ Asian flagships in terms of its scale.