The Experience at Yanbai Mountain Villa!

Wang Shu's first hotel design project is located at Yanqi Lake in Huairou, Beijing. After the APEC summit, the area around Yanqi Lake was planned as Beijing's backyard for leisure and vacation. Yanbai Mountain Villa is positioned for government reception of foreign guests, hence the facilities are top-notch and the management is quite strict. It adopts a membership system or does not allow non-reserved guests to enter. If there is a reception of foreign guests, everything has to give way. Currently, the first phase only has 38 rooms, all facing Yanqi Lake, and the price of at least 6,000 per night also sets a new benchmark for Beijing's luxury boutique hotels. Design After designing the Longquan porcelain screen for the Hangzhou version of the pavilion, Wang Shu expanded his signature brick and tile collage with the element of colored glazed porcelain pieces. In Yanbai Mountain Villa, large areas of continuous colored collage made of different materials are used on the interior and exterior walls and roofs, greatly adding decorative interest to the facade design, and it is evident that Wang Shu has found a new path for upgrading his design language. The hotel's spatial layout is more upright and practical compared to Wang Shu's previous designs, after all, the hotel is positioned as a global luxury hotel (SLH), catering to foreign guests or dignitaries, and the design is relatively restrained. In terms of landscape design, Yanbai Hotel showcases Wang Shu's expertise in using modern design language to recreate the gardens of the Song Dynasty literati, while the ultimate persistence in architectural design is probably his passion for 'lifting tiles from the roof.' The hotel's colorful tiled roof has a walkway that crosses and connects the north and south roofs, allowing visitors to enjoy the view of Yanqi Lake from the undulating rooftops. However, for the safety of the leaders, the section of the walkway without railings is naturally sealed off by the managers. Compared to the Hangzhou China Academy of Art Xiangshan Campus, where the pursuit of facade effects led to the insistence on not installing stair railings and resulted in student injuries, Beijing's managers are clearly determined to prevent such situations. It is unknown what the architect thinks about this. Experience The immersive experience of the hotel's space is indeed rich in layers, with the dignified and regular I-shaped hall for receiving foreign guests, the meandering corridors connecting different areas for visitors to appreciate the hotel's gardens and Yanqi Lake from different angles, and the extended corridors, pavilions, and towers reaching out to the lake. However, the dining experience at the hotel does not match the architecture and interior design, as well as the care put into the display of interior objects and utensils. Both the afternoon tea and the main meals are lackluster. If visitors do not have the filter of the architect's halo and return to the basics of hotel accommodation and food, then the experience at Yanbai Mountain Villa will be discounted