The impression of modern China tends to be a little skewed by the steely, impersonal landscape of skyscrapers in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. How refreshing it is then that designers and architects like Neri&Hu Design and Research Office are showing how it’s possible to conceive a contemporary Chinese vernacular that looks and feels thoroughly of its time and place.
For the 20-room Tsingpu, the Shanghai-based practice overlaid the original footprint of a neglected warehouse near Yangzhou’s Slender West Lake with a calm grid of low-slung grey-bricked pavilions, courtyards and internal decorative pools that call to mind, without any hint of cliché, traditional hutong houses.
The rooms are calm oases lined with terrazzo, white oak, walnut and steel, and dressed with furniture and lighting designed by Neri&Hu specially for this project. This sense of peace is accented by the public spaces – including an art gallery, theatre and tea house – that are framed by broad timber overhangs that catch the light and slivers of sky.
INFORMATION
Website
ADDRESS
1 Baocheng Road Hanjiang District Yangzhou
-
MoMA names Christophe Cherix its new directorThe Swiss-born curator has worked in the Museum of Modern Art’s drawings and prints department since 2007
-
The Yale Center for British Art, Louis Kahn’s final project, glows anew after a two-year closureAfter years of restoration, a modernist jewel and a treasure trove of British artwork can be seen in a whole new light
-
How Le Corbusier defined modernismLe Corbusier was not only one of 20th-century architecture's leading figures but also a defining father of modernism, as well as a polarising figure; here, we explore the life and work of an architect who was influential far beyond his field and time
-
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
