Form integrated in its surrounding landscape:
The hotel is located in the outskirts of Xiangyang in Hubei Province and sits on a small hill within the largest Myrtle Flower Garden throughout Asia.
The design of the hotel was primarily focused on providing a soothing harmony between architecture and its natural environment.
External appearance:
Designed to blend into its surrounding typography, the hotel is partially inserted into the the slope of the hill and offers varying appearance depending on ones point of view.
Wherelse the hotel is read from the north as low to the ground and as a continuity to its surrounding landscape, the complex opens up towards the South introducing the business area to a nearby restaurant by the lake.
A drop-off lane wind itself through and underneath the circular volumnes and offers a certain level of urbanity to the hotel's natural surrounding.
Internal program:
The lower zone of the hotel hosts all public areas, which are divided in 3 parts: culinarity, relaxation and business, each represented within one form-difining circle. The lobby stretches between the business and culinarity area combining those two to the main public zone of the hotel. Seperated by the drop-off lane, the Spa area gets connected to the myrtle tree park and offeres a more private atmosphere.
The upper part of the hotel accomodates the private areas with 146 guest-rooms offering a unique view on the surrounding myrtle tree park. Each circle offers a park with ponds and vegetation in its centre supporting a natural ventilation system throughout the hotel. Due to the courtyards, the walk to the hotelroom doesn't lead the guests through a twoways-served, artificial lighted hallway, but as a walk through the park, which guides them naturally to their room.
Balkonies as transitional spaces:
Being situated within a Myrtle Tree Park, the layer of balkonies serve as connecting element between the Interior of the Hotel and the vegetation of the park. Smaller Trees growing on and within the facade layer underline the relation between the articial balcony structure and its natural environment.
The facade-layer varies in depth, depending on the orientation of the rooms and provide natural lighting for the interior. This variation creates small balkonies on the narrower zones which exend to large terraces on the deeper parts offering a panoramic view to the surrounding typography.
Ecological impact:
Paying respect to its natural surrounding, the hotel also boasts a variety sustainable design mechanisms that reduce its environmental impact. The balcony layer with the integrated vegetation offers natural shading and reduces heat gains during the hot summer months. Every room throughout the hotel is surrounded by the myrtle garden on one side and a courtyard on the other, which provides natural air ventilation when needed. Rainwater gets collected on the hotels roof and passed on to the 3 courtyards, where it is stored in tanks and used for flushing and irrigating plants.
These sustainable aspects within the nature-inspired design result in one harmonic structure which blends into its surrounding and offers its visitors a unique, luxurious and ecological get-away.
