The Place, like its name, brands itself as a hotel that creates a unique visitor experienced that embodies the specific identity of each place. This specificity of place is central to Mecanoo’s “People, Place, Purpose” design philosophy, which emphasizes users, a holistic understanding of the social, historical and physical context, and a response to current and future building functions. For each assignment, our goal is to seek out the secret of the location to create a unique design that strengthens the distinct identity of the context.
In keeping with this design philosophy, Mecanoo’s interiors for The Place hotels in other cities all embody a unique sense of place: The Place in Tainan reinterprets the historic city’s rich streetscape; in Yilan, the hotel is located in the National Center for Traditional Arts and draws its inspiration from local craftsmanship. By contrasting old and new, mixing of west and east, the hotel becomes a contemporary interpretation of a traditional art form.
This new cruiser for European tourists is designed to show the beauty of the Mekong River and the country through which it flows. For this reason, we designed the interior of this 56m long and four-deck ship in a modern style, based on the heritage of the Far East architecture.
The selected textures, materials and geometry are characteristic for this area. The entire interior is designed as a frame for nature through which it is cruising – to complement it, instead of drawing attention from the natural beauty of the landscape.
ANNSO HILL, located in Heshun Ancient Town of Yunnan, is situated in a narrow alleyway lined with B&Bs and storefronts. The site is composed with two characteristically different lot spaces forming an inverted“L”shape, which begins with a compressed street front zone on a steep slope, and ends on a long serene hillside aligned with beautiful tall trees.
Zhongshan, known as Heung-san in ancient time, was an isolated sea island rumored to have been an earthly heaven boasting many a celestial flower. With the endeavor and commitment of generations of great figures in the history, Zhongshan has become an agreeable city to live and a leader in commercial and cultural development nationwide. Le Méridien Zhongshan is located in Gangkou Town of Zhongshan City, with monuments, temples, modern shopping malls and verdant wetland parks all close by. As the first five-star destination of business trip in North Gate of Zhongshan urban area, the 100 meter high-rise of 24 floors is regarded as the most impressive skyline of Gangkou Town.
BLVD always treat entrusted projects with good-will and resolution by exploring the past of the city and savor locally exclusivehuman and social cultures, the design approach perfectly aligned with “Destination Unlocked”, the brand idea of Le Méridien. The design unveils the cultural glamour of this historic town with new visions, throwing guests to the past when the city was called Heung-san. Inspired by “mountains”, it infuses fun and excitement into the hotel and arouses curiosity and a spirit of adventure with French elegance of Le Méridien.
The Tatersal Amador Aguiar consists in a complex to support Valonia Farm, an estate dedicated to cattle auctions field, located in Lins, a city in the interior of São Paulo State – Brazil. Its program provides basic infrastructure to the livestock show and guest reception, creating exhibition and confraternization spaces.
The approach to the site suggests an effective rereading of corrals in farms, usually composed by gable roofs, setting a patio. Moreover, the program organization considers service flows, accessibility for the guests, besides taking into account the privileged perspectives to surrounding landscape.
Board + Batten, located in historic Plymouth Notch, Vermont, is a private guest house sited at the edge of a mature forest overlooking a private meadow. Accessed by a narrow footpath, the secluded guest house is organized in a T-shaped symmetrical plan with bedrooms defining the edge of the forest and the living spaces projecting into the meadow. The residence is inspired by board and batten siding, ubiquitous in the region as a durable and functional cladding. Board + Batten is clad in a playful composition of painted board, mirror polish stainless steel panels and windows within the regimented spacing of the board and batten layout. Ranging from opaque to translucent to reflective, the siding creates a rich and textured surface that meaningfully integrates the house into the landscape. A standing seam black metal roof, hipped in all directions, is finished with a knife-edged cedar soffit and aligned to the cedar deck below. The interior spaces are defined by a minimalist palette of finished concrete floors, painted walls, western red cedar details, and custom beds and cabinetry to compliment the mid-century furnishings.
Article source: ENDO SHOJIRO DESIGN + Tada Masaharu Atelier
We renovated the wooden two-story house in Kyoto to a complex facility (guest house, cafe and owner's residence). Existing buildings were rebuilt and rebuilt many times, so they had a strange shape. So we once organized the structure and added structure reinforcement. And we greatly reduced the first floor part of the building.
By making an alley there, wind, light and sight line have come to the back of the site. The alley is overflowing with greenery, a space where tourists and locals gather. Travelers cross the cafe´ in the alley and get to the entrance of the guest house. There is a small shrine in the courtyard. This is a shrine worshiped in the former building, we rebuilt.
This building was a shop and a house with an frontage of 2.7 m and a depth of 11.7 m.
We renovated this to the guest house.
First of all, in order to eliminate the psychological feeling of pressure due to the narrowness of this width, we left all of the third floor leaving the structure.
Project La Vela is a new development with 181 guest rooms,2 restaurants, a spa, a beach club and a large swimming pool. What is unique about the project is its unusual land site which appears to be two large separated areas joined by a 10-meter wide walkway. The project is located on an 8th century trading route, a fact which inspired the development’s creative layout.
The project architect chose a triangular-shaped configuration where the lines connecting the three vertices represent strength and connectivity and suggest the sightings of stars which travelers used as reference when traveling at night. Such sight delineations are useful to sense the ‘space’ and ‘place’ of vast areas. Moreover, when multiple triangular shapes are layered over one another, they accentuate a sense of greater connectivity between different areas and expose spaces that were once hidden from view.
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