When it comes to location, the owners of the newly opened Aventree could not have picked a prettier spot. Set at the top of Hangzhou’s Wengjiashan mountain in a neighbourhood speckled with tea farmers and a tableau of scenic West Lake, the 15-room hotel is a quiet bolt-hole that’s far from the madding crowd but near enough for excursive strikes to the area’s famed landmarks.
The Tokyo-based architecture firm Kooo (which is not a typo) has converted the original five-storey farm house with finesse. A sequence of Corten steel pipes on the façade and property fence provide a unifying look, while the internal spaces have been reshaped into austere rooms lined with blonde timber, floating bed platforms, and airy bathrooms. A contrasting mood pervades the public spaces with Kooo adding black walnut to the lobby, bronzed steel for doors and handrails, and a staircase swathed in tactile linen.
Throughout the hotel, mirrors have been used with great effect, bringing in both diffused light and scenes of the countryside. On misty days, the view through the floor to ceiling glass windows of the restaurant is especially evocative, though more adventurous guests will thrill to the hotel’s offer of tents for a camping jaunt in the mountain.
Personally, we’re staying put for executive chef Chen Yanhai’s beef roll with egg, and roast chicken wings scented with Longjing green tea harvested from the neighbouring plantations.
ADDRESS
249# Wengjiashan Road
Xihu District
Hangzhou
-
Could putting pen to reMarkable’s Paper Pro tablet make you more creative and less stressed?Design Museum director Tim Marlow extols the power of ‘scribbling’, and is backed up by new research from reMarkable on the benefits of its paper tablet
-
2025 Seoul Mobility Show report: all that's new and notableOpened at a time of high national drama, the 2025 Seoul Mobility Show has gone on to underscore Korea’s place at the cutting edge of the auto industry. Guy Bird was there
-
Dries Van Noten’s new London store is an eclectic, art-filled havenAs Dries Van Noten enters a new era under creative director Julian Klausner, the brand opens a London flagship filled with works by David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Ron Arad and more. Here, Wallpaper* gets an exclusive first look
-
Prada and Wong Kar-wai dream up a cinematic restaurant in ShanghaiPrada partners with Wong Kar-wai to bring Mi Shang Rong Zhai to life, a dining experience influenced by the arthouse director’s seminal oeuvre
-
Enjoy heritage views and contemporary brews at a new Beijing caféJM Café, White Pagoda Temple by B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio nods to the history of the Xicheng District while injecting a shot of vitality
-
Must-visit cinemas with award-worthy designThere’s more magic to the movies at these design-led cinemas, from Busan Cinema Centre’s ‘flying’ roof to The Gem Cinema Jaipur’s art deco allure
-
China’s Alila Shanghai hotel is a stylish hub of idle tranquillityAlila Shanghai, the brand's first urban resort in Greater China, is a serene bolthole amidst the pulse of the Jing'an district
-
2025 getaways: where Wallpaper* editors will be travelling to this yearFrom the Japanese art islands of Naoshima and Teshima to the Malaysian tropical paradise of Langkawi, here’s where Wallpaper* editors plan to travel to in 2025
-
Travel back to the Ming dynasty at Beijing’s new Mandarin Oriental hotelMandarin Oriental Qianmen merges traditional culture with contemporary needs in a 600-year-old historical building complex
-
Inside Palazzo Versace Macau, a lavish, mosaic-rich hotelPalazzo Versace Macau, the brand’s first hotel in Asia, continues to preserve Donatella Versace’s swanky hospitality vision
-
'Retreat and recharge' in Yanbai Villa on a secluded Beijing shorelineYanbai Villa wraps guests in quiet luxury, opening its doors on a secluded Beijing shoreline
