Intro

The U Hotel was an old traditional hotel with poor natural lighting and some office facilities. All guest rooms were narrow and crowded, the moving line was disorderly. Therefore, we have innovated the original brand concept in order to rebuild the hotel brand on the premise of customer comfort, so as to enhance the brand value.

The design concept originates from the philosophy of Chinese Tao. Through understanding the essence of Tao, we can find the freedom of our mind and embody the relationship between self-understanding, existence and universe in this space. The pattern, moving line and scenery in our designed architectural space do not emphasize the style and the modelling, but present the essence of Tao at a spatial level in order to create a natural scenery and an unpretentious existence.

The combination of the two natural elements light and wood is based on a particular understanding of cosmology. The concept of lights glittering in the universe has been applied to the atrium interior space of the hotel scenery area. Daylight slowly flows in, giving the guest rooms in this area an outdoor scenery which improves the insufficient lighting problem. At night, it transforms into a scenery of a starry night sky where friends gather to chat and relax. It’s also the main moving line in between two sight-seeing elevators, with the elevator slowly going up as we rise into this vast stardust. We managed to conceal the fire pipelines into the wooden grilles on the side walls.

The warm and restrained texture of wood constructs a harmonious moving line for the space of different functions in the whole hotel. The use of a large number of wooden grilles at the entrance redefines the brand tonality of the hotel. We reorganized the entrance through the retreating space and the staircase, as well as enhanced the overall comfort. The wooden structured ceiling of the lobby and the dining hall refer to the style of ancient Chinese architecture trusses; we used aesthetic techniques to simplify it in order to form a peaceful contrast through these naked trusses. The lobby has a buffet area where guests can pick their own drinks and snacks. The library is also in a wood base, matched with ink shading styled curtains, so that light passes through the curtains and shines on the wooden surface, which endows this multi-functional area with a softer atmosphere.

The rooms regress to the nature of rest, and the low-density decoration presents a more primitive and simple appearance of the wood, enabling guests to find their most relaxing moments in here. In addition, considering the popularity of large movie projection screens among young generations, the guest rooms’ house family theatres, creating a comfortable home environment as well as an exquisite hotel experience.