Hospitality Design - March/April 2016 - 80

perspectives

brand identity le méridien

1

Photos by PEDRO PEGENAUTE

3

2

5
1. Le Méridien Zhengzhou's
exterior resembles a series
of stacked boxes.

4. Mesh surrounds the
private dining rooms at
Le Mei.

2. The Hub, where
skylights brighten the
cave-like atrium space.

5. Bronze poles, which
support floating canopies,
lead guests to the main
entrance.

3. Guestrooms are an
exercise in dark and light.

4

Zhengzhou > The capital of China's

Henan province and a former political
heavyweight, Zhengzhou has been experiencing
rapid development-leading to a central business
district that lacks planning. And situated at the
junction of major roads in the historic CBD, as
part of a large generic residential and commercial
complex, is Le Méridien Zhengzhou. Shanghai's
Neri & Hu Design and Research Office, charged
with transforming one of those nondescript
buildings into the brand's first location the city,
chose to celebrate the area's history by imagining
the hotel as an archive of artifacts.
Responsible for both the interior and
exterior, "The main aim for us was to break
down the blocky perception and fragmentize the
proportion," explains founding partner Lyndon
Neri. "The architectural strategy was to use

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March/April 2016 hospitalitydesign.com

the concept of framed boxes-like a stacking of
archival storage boxes. Further fragmentation
was achieved by using three slightly different
tinted colors and reflectiveness to accentuate the
perception of varied visual depth. Since the urban
context is quite chaotic, the new building serves as
a visual anchor for the complex and is now seen
as a landmark that speaks of the modernization of
Zhengzhou."
The hotel features a five-story podium
for public functions and F&B spaces, and a
337-guestroom tower. For the podium, the firm
was inspired by the nearby historic Longmen
Caves, "one of the finest examples of Chinese
Buddhist art carved into limestone cliffs," says
Neri. The celebration of excavation and carving
is seen in "the various openings surrounding the
central atrium that visually connect the public

spaces across multiple floors," he explains.
"Skylights above pierce the space with shafts
of natural light that highlight the sedimentary
pattern on the gray sandstone-clad walls,"
while green-tinted windows and a chandelier
installation of hanging glass tube pendants fills
the space with more light and color.
At the top of the atrium, wooden boxes set into
the wall are a more "delicate articulation" of the
cave, Neri says. These are repeated throughout the
hotel as an architectural element-on the ceilings
in the pre-function area and Akebono restaurant
(forming an undulating landscape), as windows
in the atrium, in latticework in Le Mei restaurant,
and in the spa as mirrors.
Other highlights include a forest of bronze
poles that welcomes guests at the entrance while
suspending two porte-cochère canopies; Le Mei's
private dining rooms, shrouded in metal mesh; a
rooftop garden surrounded in wood slats and lined
with pebbles; and the play of light and dark in the
guestrooms-bathrooms are done in all white,
while the bedroom and living areas, separated
from the bathrooms by only a pane of glass etched
in white with flowers, is swathed in stained wood
and gray tones.
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