Images © Will Pryce
When an award-winning architect the stature of Wilkinson Eyre Architects builds a spectacular new building and global interior design leader Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA) is selected to create the interior fit-out, the results are bound to be stellar. With this project, HBA set out to challenge perceptions of hotel design with the styling of the Four Seasons Guangzhou, a spectacular new property in China’s southern provincial capital and the brand’s 88th property worldwide. Remarkable for both its soaring height and tapering avant garde design, the hotel is set to become a new benchmark for architectural interior design in Asia.
Rising 103 storeys above the Pearl River, the Four Seasons Guangzhou occupies the top third of the new Guangzhou International Finance Center, marking the final completion of the award-winning 440m skyscraper designed by Wilkinson Eyre with engineer, Arup. Designed by HBA, the 344 luxurious guest rooms and suites of the Four Seasons Guangzhou are among the most modern and spacious in the city, with unrivalled views of the Pearl River.. The project is architecturally dramatic for its triangular tower, diagonal lattice and soaring, 30-floor-high atrium. HBA’s interior design concept is striking, developed to push the boundaries of design and challenge perceptions of the classic hotel interior.
HBA worked with the full potential of Wilkinson Eyre’s design. The building’s floor-to-ceiling windows make for light-filled spaces and create extraordinary panoramic views for the hotel’s stylish restaurants, bars and guest rooms. The atrium balconies have been sculpted by Wilkinson Eyre so that when viewed from the atrium they recall the building’s diamond shaped steel ‘diagrid’ structure. This is accented at night by lighting design which artistically illuminates the handrails throughout the atrium.
Guests access the hotel’s ground floor lobby and enter dedicated express elevators to the 70th floor sky lobby which benefits from amazing views out over the Pearl River and a towering atrium. This space is flooded with daylight from a dramatic roof light floating 120m above hotel guests’ heads. Nowhere is the sense of height more intense than from the 100th floor restaurant and 99th floor bar and Executive Club lounge, with a staircase that is cantilevered over the atrium connecting the two levels.
“In designing the Guangzhou IFC we aimed for an elegant simplicity that complements the city’s skyline… The drama comes from the sheer size of the building and the clear expression and visibility of the diagrid structure.”
Chris Wilkinson, Wilkinson Eyre Architects
Throughout the hotel, a carefully curated collection of paintings, prints and sculptures by contemporary international artists enhance HBA’s sleek modern interiors and Wilkinson Eyre’s dramatic architecture.
The hotel offers a fully-equipped spa, fitness centre and an infinity pool with spectacular views of the city below. Guests can admire the view from the 100th floor restaurant and from a range of dining venues, including Japanese, Cantonese and seafood restaurants as well as an Italian cafe. Three formal ballrooms give over 3500m2 of event space for weddings, social occasions and conferences.
Dominic Bettison, director at Wilkinson Eyre, says: “After working on the project for over six years, it’s remarkable to see the last piece of the jigsaw fit into place. We set out to create a smooth, elegant tower and, when visiting the hotel, it’s clear that the Four Seasons and the interior designers understood what makes the building special.
“It is hugely satisfying to see that the hotel experience is so closely connected to the character of the building, making the most of its height, quality of light and overall level of sophistication.”
Chris Wilkinson, founding director, Wilkinson Eyre, says: “In designing the Guangzhou IFC we aimed for an elegant simplicity that complements the city’s skyline. It is quite different to many super high-rises in that it has a smooth, aerodynamic, glazed skin. The drama comes from the sheer size of the building and the clear expression and visibility of the diagrid structure.”
Ian Carr, CEO of HBA in Singapore, says: “Our design is informed by the building we were given. The architect created amazing spaces for us to work with and this building really stands out as a new design landmark for both Guangzhou and for the Four Seasons brand.”
The building utilises the world’s tallest constructed diagrid structure which is clearly expressed through the building’s façade and gives the building considerable character. The diagrid members are formed from concrete-filled steel tubes which provide both good stiffness and fire protection to the structure. The tubular diagrid structure ‘nodes-out’ every 12 storeys to form 54m high giant steel diamonds. At the base of the tower the structural members are 1800mm in diameter and reduce in size up the building to 900mm at the top.
The structural core takes much of the gravity load of the building’s floors and is linked back to the diagrid perimeter structure via floor beams to create a stiff ‘tube-within-tube’ structural system. The inherent stiffness in the structure minimises steel tonnage whilst providing resistance to acceleration and sway, thereby maintaining high comfort levels for the building’s occupants. This stiffness and resistance to acceleration means that no damping of the structure is required. The shape of the building has been designed to reduce the effects of wind, thereby reducing the necessary size and weight of the structure.
Interior design
Every detail of the hotel’s elegant yet ultramodern interior was meticulously planned and executed to ensure an exceptional guest experience. From the ground floor, guests take dedicated express elevators to the 70th floor lobby, where a dramatic 3m red steel sculpture by Australian artist Matthew Harding appears to float on a sea of watery glass, reflecting the astounding ceiling window 30 floors above.
The incredible naturally-lit atrium, surrounded by restaurants and rooms above, is higher than the top of St Paul’s Cathedral in London and New York’s Statue of Liberty. The intricate textured screen made of woven metal wraps around the interior of the sky-high lobby. In a subtle reference to the hotel brand, the screen is themed around the four seasons, from spring in the basement to autumn in the upper reaches.
“The artwork extends to edgy, modern Southern Chinese pieces by local artists and continues the theme of the four seasons from spring on the ground floor to winter at the top floor,” says Sandra DeSouza, Director of Canvas, art consultants on the project. For instance, Tian Bar on Level 99, where the artwork is pure, white and ethereal in a fitting tribute to the heavens.
A key challenge that HBA faced was to match interiors with the complex structural columns featured in all public spaces and the hotel’s 104 guest rooms and suites. Each boasts a unique floorplan as a result, with the building narrowing as it rises and columns intersecting at different points. The only constants in HBA’s guest room interiors are the bathrooms and beds, positioned to offer unparalleled views of the Pearl River Delta and cityscape. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows additionally encourage guests to “look right down,” says HBA’s Ian Carr. “This design is naturally inspired by the 103-storey building we were given. We didn’t want to close up the windows and deny guests the spectacular view.”
Furniture is predominantly modern Italian, with contemporary Chinese art playing off elements of nature and culture. HBA created beautifully customised carpets that are watercolour-like and evocative of the skies and clouds. “Everything Four Seasons does is classy – nothing trite or glib,” says Ian. Embracing this brief, HBA’s objective was to bridge the gap between Four Seasons’ ‘modern conservatism’ style and the building’s avant garde architecture, with the vast, light-filled central atrium contributing to a particularly dramatic effect.
“Where guests check in, they can look up and see beautiful patterning spanned across 35 floors of tapering diagonal glass, it’s quite amazing,” says Ian. This lent itself to creating further patterns of angles and refractive elements in the interior design, from the handrails in the atrium – custom measured for each floor – to a dynamic skylight at the top, with angular black panels.
The effect is magnified in interior corridors, with angled glass deliberately projecting outwards to embrace the height. Nowhere is this sense of height more intense than from a bridge on level 100, where a staircase projects into the void and glass floors look down 40 floors below to the lobby.
In addition to Tian Bar, HBA also provided sumptuous interiors for Yu Yue Heen, Caffe Mondo and Kumoi – three of the hotel’s four new dining destinations. Located on level 71, signature Chinese restaurant Yu Yue Heen deliberately speaks a different design language than the rest of the project, with interiors playing on traditional Chinese calligraphy and carrying the colours of the Red Dragon. In Yu Yue Heen, and throughout the hotel, design marries tradition and innovation to firmly ground interiors in modern China.
“Overall, Four Seasons Hotel Guangzhou breaks conventions, coupling luxury with the avant garde,” Ian adds. “The architect created amazing spaces for us to work with and this building really stands out as a new design icon for both Guangzhou and for the Four Seasons brand.”
