Building by design goes classic

Many buildings are bulldozed to make way for redevelopment, but the structures can actually avoid the wrecking ball and be improved through a better expression of history and culture with modern art.

That idea of focusing on the “emotional resonance” of space, beyond its functionality, was one of the takeaways from an urban design conference in late September in Beijing.

The event, hosted by the Elle Decoration magazine with manufacturing company Kohler at the Chao Hotel in the capital’s Sanlitun area, involved four professional hotel designers from Hong Kong, as well as Singapore and the United States, discussing the latest developments in the industry.

Hong Kong’s Ed Ng, who founded the architectural and interior design company AB Concept, says trends certainly never last forever. Design trends run like a circle — people’s daily lives are filled with modern technology and that leads to their hunger for “old techniques”.

Now we can smell the resurgence of classicism; not the style completely, but its elements.” Ed Ng,

Ng says that minimalism was everywhere. Then people got tired and wanted something new. “Now we can smell the resurgence of classicism; not the style completely, but its elements.”

The speakers at the event hailed that conservatism, the avant-garde, history and the contemporary do not have to run counter to one another. Hotel designers, for example, can choose to transform a space based on its original building, rather than construct something totally new. Injecting new vitality into the space with respect to its history can help “trigger” more identity and resonance.

Sun Xinxi, the editorial director of the magazine, considers the trace of time and the beauty of nature as two of the most luxurious things as they cannot be produced artificially. These two “sublimate the space”, he says.

Maurice Li, Chao Hotel’s brand director, says that idea is reflected in the design of his establishment.

The hotel is transformed from the previous City Hotel, which used to be a popular guesthouse for foreigners. It retained the original facade of a large oblique triangle, but its interior was refurbished at the end of last year. Instead of the integrated tile floor preferred by many fancy hotels, this hotel opted for wooden ones made with old door panels collected from traditional Beijing hutong alleyways.

For Singapore’s Leonard Lee, who is the regional managing director of interior architectural design company Wilson Associates, a grand lobby is empty and boring unless it is “activated” by “exciting” details. A great space is designed to serve the people in it, creating almost a fourth dimension for the guest, says Lee.

Design should be made as accessible for the public as much as possible and the conference is “very meaningful in that regard”, adds Lee.