At 1,500 rooms, this hotel will be the largest hotel in Beijing. It is located near the Beijing International Airport in the 5th Ring, and will be used to host international conferences. The building is 303 meters long and is intended to become a major landmark, visible to landing aircraft.
Courtesy of Tom Wiscombe
The building is organized around three volumetric rings fused together by surfaces draped from the top and bottom. The rings create atriums which are enclosed by ETFE domes, housing a 10,000 m2 interior rainforest as well as the conference center and hotel amenities. Rooms, radiating out along each ring, are oriented both outwards and inwards, creating views out to the city as well as down into the rainforest. The droop of the rings towards the perimeter of the building also allows views outward from the interiors of the rings. Structural bays are flexible and can be broken down into standard, business suite, and presidential types. A sky restaurant is located at the highest level of the building, with views out to the city in all directions.
Courtesy of Tom Wiscombe
The enclosure of the building is a double skin system where the outer layer is a weather break and the inner layer is the weatherproof enclosure. This creates a thermal buffer zone as well as the freedom to design a freeform pattern of apertures unrelated to the relentless horizontality of the hotel floor plates. The outer skin is supported by a lightweight cable-net structure which is stabilized by large tension rings affixed at the top and perimeter of the building.
Courtesy of Tom Wiscombe
The skin is also embedded with a second system of solar thermal pipes and grey water capture grooves which hybridizes the base diamond pattern with a sporadic weaving pattern. Driven by EMERGENT‘s long-time interest in complex biological systems, structure, skin, and thermal systems are interwoven in such a way that they cannot be reduced back to their parts.
Courtesy of Tom Wiscombe
Courtesy of Tom Wiscombe
