Facebook Tweet Help Stories Hospitality VUE Hotel's new flagship property in Beijing Share Tweet Help The architects behind this project took a series of quasi-historic buildings and transformed them into a new hotel complex Two pink rabbits sit atop one of the buildings VUE Hotel’s first flagship property is located in Beijing, in the Hutong district of Houhai. The hotel compound sits on the edge of the picturesque Houhai lake, and neighbours a verdant public park, as well as historic Hutong houses which are still used by local inhabitants today. Located along Houhai’s banks are a district of bars and vibrant cafes.Undertaken as a major adaptive-reuse exercise, the hotel comprises a series of artisticallytransformed quasi-historic buildings from the 1950’s.This intriguing hotel compound invites you to explore its many facets where you will discover a series of landscaped gardens, a bakery café fronting the bustle of the Hutong streets, a signature restaurant in a warehouse, a rooftop bar overlooking the lake, a gym and over 80 rooms and suites, several with private gardens or with views overlooking the park or lake.About the architectureThe hotel compound comprises a series of quasi-historic buildings from the 1950’s, with a variety of architectural styles and approaches. Although they were designed primarily in the Chinese vernacular, the different buildings span a range of ornamentation from highly decorative roof eaves, characterful gargoyles, sculptured balconies and latticed window frames, to pared-back jack roofs and plain brick work wall finishes. Our design approach has been to unify this diverse collection through colour and landscaping. One of the more tame rooms, this space opens out to a balcony All the buildings are conceptually draped over with a dark charcoal grey coat of paint, uponwhich key architectural details have been highlighted in a contemporary gold patina. Thesefeatured elements shimmer against the dark backdrop and their prominence suggests aninformal “cataloguing” of key architectural details.As guests explore the compound, this“catalogue” of details gradually brings into focus the distinction between the historical versus the contemporary: a subtle juxtaposition, which highlights the rich tension arising from any adaptive reuse design. A mixed seating area sits beneath the sky Conceptually, the design harnesses all the “left-over” spaces in-between each building, to tie the compound into a single holistic experience. These in-between spaces are treatedgraphically with an “ice-ray” lattice pattern inspired by traditional Chinese screens.Treated three-dimensionally, hardscaped floors and passageways rise to become private balconies orgarden enclosures. Story by: David Renwick 16 Nov, 2017 Hospitality Trendsideas Home kitchen bathroom commercial design Latest Post Desert romance 24 Mar, 2024 Connection and cohesion 24 Mar, 2024 Villa from the street – but that's only half the story 24 Mar, 2024 We know the Specialists Similar Stories