THE Middle House shanghai
The Middle house, the fourth offering of super high-end hotels from the swire group, is the hotel of the moment in shanghai, a city where the new new is everything. Forget the recently opened edition or
The sukhothai. This is it.
Located next to the high-end shopping centre development hkri Taikoo hui in dazhongli, and overlooking the biggest, chicest starbucks I have ever seen (with its own coffee factory), the hotel is situated in a semicircular building coloured with a masculine mixture of dark blacks, grey and browns, and covered by a striated aluminium façade. The interior, by Piero Lissoni, is very much a combo of sleek modernism with streamlined silhouettes and the traditional, very wabi sabi in style: think a traditional chinese wooden bench placed amidst the sleekest dark-grey rain
shower. Think also modernist shapes in muted neutral hues but with sophisticated surfaces: glazed ceramics, rough light-grey bricks, dark-grey but speckled marbles, and ebonised floors. Puncturing these palates however are beautiful plantings that stand out against the shades of grey, particularly all the bamboo mini forests at the entrance, and almost 700 works of art from the swire collection themed to I dream of china.
each studio (and there are 111 of them over 15 floors, ranging in size) is set up like a mini apartment to have a lounging area, an enormous bathroom with modernist oval tub and huge shower, separated from the living room by a glass wall, and a super comfortable bed with a pull (called Mr goodnight) that turns all the lighting off or on, simplifying technology at last. They all have beautiful complimentary minibars (other than wine and champagne), chic toiletry bags, Bamford cosmetics, and dangerously delicious swiss chocolates, not to mention enormous TVS and state-
of-the-art sound systems. all details are beautifully considered.
Then there is the food, catered via a branch of the super chic café gray deluxe, imported from The upper house in hong Kong, and overseen by new York chef gray Kunz. The shredded chinese flatbread at breakfast was a particular highlight and I expect the bar, lounge and outdoor dining areas to be very buzzy in the evening. Just across the connecting stairway to the shopping centre are other amazing restaurants including UMI,
The Peacock room and a branch of the legendary Lvmh-owned Milanese patisserie cova.
one floor underground in the basement is The Lab at Mi Xun spa, another futuristic white and black world that reminded me of the curving spa at The dolder grand in zürich. There you can find a vast pool and a row of stainless steel loungers set in the water, too, as well as the usual spa amenities. Ideal to recover from the hecticness of this city. 8 themiddlehousehotel.com n