Wheat Youth Arts Hotel
This is a hotel who says hello to guests with walls, a hotel
looks like a gallery, a hotel that is willing to accompany you, and a hotel that
makes you willing to sing a song or draw a painting for others. This is Wheat Youth
Arts Hotel!
Design Director: LI Xiang
Design Team: FAN Chen, CHEN Dan, WU Feng, ZHANG Xiao, REN Li-Jiao
Address: No. 9, Tai’an Road, Binjiang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Area: 4500 sqm
Target customers of Wheat Youth Arts Hotel are young people or people who think
they are still young. The goal is to design a hotel which itself will flirt with tourists,
and a place welcomes tourists to tease at each other.
The hotel is located in Binjiang District, Hangzhou, and within the trade area of
Avenue of Stars. The entry is not eye-catching and it is inside a shopping mall; it is on the 7th floor. Upon approaching, two simple words “Mai Jian (Wheat)” could be seen on the small, simple and white door of the hotel. The designer creates a small lobby at the door; guests need to go through the small lobby when they see the name of the hotel, and then they will arrive at the hall. At the end of the small
lobby, instead of using decorations like traditional pictures and work of art, it is a
vertical display of all necessary supplies for hotel guest room. All the items are
painted into white and sealed with glass to form a showcase. At the exterior side of the glass, it is the word “hallo” in orange-yellow. It makes people feel like that all items in the guest room are gathering here to welcome future guests.
Entering the the lobby, the space looks like a study and a living room. Book shelves are against four walls, the white wall and glass folded-paper styled partition separate the resting area from the book shelves. The big dog in front of the bar is like a hospitable steward who welcomes the guests on behalf of the host, and the chain fastens him has become a queue line. The designer uses Chinese checkers to describe people, so he decorates a map of the world on one of the walls using
Chinese checkers, which carries a message that the hotel welcomes friends from all
over the world to gather here. Also the designer uses Chinese checkers to represent
the service personnel of the hotel, thus Chinese checkers - like stools are designed.
Sitting on them, makes guests feel like being served.
The design of the corridor is concise but powerful and is winding forward. There
are paintings and graffiti on every corner of the corridor and part of the ceiling is
decorated with colored Chinese checkers, which is as sweet as skittles.
The designer uses music, painting and reading which are loved by people in our
daily life to decorate the whole atmosphere of the hotel. There is piano in the
corridor of every floor, this allows guests to amuse themselves and share the charm
of music and take music as a tool of silent communication between strangers.
The easel next to the window is specially designed for guests, the designer hopes
every guest could leave some cherished moments. The TV is blocked by a huge
painting which is slidable and with greetings on it. The designer wants to use
simple furniture to present a concise space. The function and aesthetics of desk,
bed and clothes hanger combines with each other smartly.
When the sun falls, guests could come to the coffee shop of the hotel to enjoy
their leisure time. On the ceiling, seven small figures fall from the sky carrying
parachutes. Flying is the most graceful posture to embrace the world, the designer
believes.
Hallo! How is going today! Very happy to see you! What’s up man! And the greeting
said by hotel stuffs humorously in which they use Chinese pronunciation “Beng
Zhu” to express the French word “Bonjour”. A sense of caring and communication
could be felt everywhere, personified words are appeared in wherever in sight to
interact with guests. This is a hotel who says hello to guests with walls, a hotel
looks like a gallery, a hotel that is willing to accompany you, and a hotel that
makes you willing to sing a song or draw a painting for others. This is Wheat Youth
Arts Hotel!
