Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM), the New York-based architectural firm, has completed The Park Hotel Hyderabad, the flagship hotel for The Park Hotel Group, in November 2010. This 531,550-square-foot, 270-room hotel infuses a modern, sustainable design with the local craft traditions, and is influenced by the region’s reputation as a center for the design and production of gemstones and textiles.
Roger Duffy, SOM’s Partner in Charge of the project, says, “This building signals our commitment to creating a design that simultaneously felt at home among the exuberant vernacular architecture of Hyderabad, while simultaneously incorporating the latest sustainable strategies and technologies.”
The project is distinctive for its profound implementation of sustainable design strategies, with special attention paid to the building’s relationship to its site, daylighting and views. Solar studies influenced the site orientation and building massing, with program spaces concentrated in the north and south facades, and service circulation on the west to reduce heat gain. The hotel rooms are raised to allow more expansive views, situated on top of a podium comprised of retail spaces, art galleries, and banquet halls open to guests and visitors.
The building’s three sides wrap around an elevated central courtyard that can be accessed from the hotel lobby. This flexible outdoor area is protected from strong winds, and serves as an extension of the restaurants inside. It features a private dining court and a swimming pool, which can be seen from the adjacent areas and the nightclub below, with moving patterns formed by light passing through the pool’s water. The outdoor courtyard was designed to be a multifunctional space accessible from the lobby, restaurants, and bar that surround it. Elevated three stories above ground, this veranda provides views to Hussain Sagar Lake and the city.
The facade provides a range of transparency according to the needs of the spaces inside. Perforated and embossed metal screens over a high-performance glazing system give privacy to the hotel rooms while allowing diffused daylight to enter the interior spaces, and provides acoustic insulation from trains passing nearby. The opaque areas of the cladding shield the hotel’s service areas from public view. The shape of the facade’s openings, as well as the three-dimensional patterns on the screens themselves, were inspired by the forms of the metalwork of the crown jewels of the Nizam, the city’s historic ruling dynasty.
SOM designed many of the project’s interior spaces, including the lobbies, the lobby lounge, retail, and banquet halls. The interiors continue the jewelry concept – with silver, gold and gem tones throughout. Many of the interior surfaces, including the mosaics, reflect local designs, which were implemented by artists and craftsmen from the region.
Priya Paul, Chairperson of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels which owns The Park brand, describes The Park, Hyderabad as “a Modern Indian Palace, something refreshing and different that speaks to the aspirations of India today.”
Collaboration with manufacturers, fabricators, and researchers played a vital role in developing this low-energy prototype building, with data gathered in collaboration with the Stevens Institute of Technology’s Product Architecture Lab in Hoboken, New Jersey. As a result, the design team was able to reduce the building’s energy use by twenty percent. In addition, an on-site water treatment facility and sewage treatment plant process both gray water for reuse and waste water for release back into the city’s sewer system.
The project achieved the first LEED Gold certification for a hotel in India, and has been awarded Best New Hospitality Project of 2010 from Cityscape India. It also served as a case study for using a collaborative process to achieve an environmentally efficient design in Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal in 2009, and was the subject of a white paper written by the design team on the high-performance curtain wall system.
BARIN SKI RESORT
This ten-storey resort is located near Shemshak ski resort, the second largest ski resort in Iran and in only half an hour drive from the capital. In 2008, client requested architects to redesign a ski resort, a cozy and warm place for young people to relax in after skiing out in extremely cold weather.
When the architects were brought on board to design the project, the base build had already been completed. The main structure and ceiling had been built in a classic cube shape, but the architects felt the rectangular shape was alien to the naturally sloping mountain formation.
This location is defined by Snow-covered landscapes. So they didn't want the building to be indifferent about its surrounding, but as a part of nature embracing that. The Barin Ski resort picks up on the philosophy of designing buildings so that the form emulates the immediate environment in a fluid way. Barin ski resort looks one with the snow-covered mountain, almost as if windswept onto the mountain side, like an iced rock formation.
The individuals rooms, 67 in total, each in a different size, from 45m studio flat to 270m penthouse, seem carved into a mountainous ice block like natural caves. Each cell which is in dome shape enhances the feeling of a warm, homely 'cave' to relax in after skiing out in the cold.
The continuation of this design approach inside the rooms and corridors, which also have organically formed, as well as the pebble shaped windows that offer stunning views of the surrounding mountain range, all these factors make the Barin Ski Resort a holistic building that complements its natural habitat.
HOTEL UNIQUESão Paulo, Brazil
Ruy Ohtake, Architectural Poetry - Regarded as one of the most incredible architects of the 21st century, his projects challenge conventional architecture.
Creator of innovative and original forms, his buildings are an incontestable proof that the mind of this Nippon-Brazilian has room only for works of genius. The effervescent spirit of Ruy Ohtake’s architecture is owed to, above all, a concept that he himself has coined, in that all things must have a meaning. One only needs to observe the sensual curves of the Unique Hotel, an innovative building featuring tenuous lines and structures that already comprises part of the São Paulo skyline, to understand his concept of architectural art. The hotel has garnered international prestige since its inauguration and has conferred unequaled kudos to Ohtake as a great artist and a transformer of urban space.
When he was commissioned to design a hotel, that had to become a design landmark, at the request of the owner, Ruy Ohtake accepted the invitation as a challenge. “I really wanted to build something innovative, light years from the commonplace,” confided the architect who dared to create a distinctive construction model to house one of the most well known hotels in the world of luxury hostelry. He stated, “the empty space can have strength”, and he believes that this trait is the distinctive feature of the Unique Hotel building. This empty space is associated with the 25m-tall column, the mandatory limit set by urban street planning, which supports the six-storey hotel’s semicircular nave. The rooms follow the same shape with the 1.8m diameter round windows, which allow in natural light. The project in the shape of a large inverted arch is extremely relevant to a megalopolis like São Paulo and it was in thinking about this city full of skyscrapers that the architect decided to design and place the Skye restaurant on the rooftop.
Working with innovation is one of the trademarks of Ruy Ohtake, the Brazilian son of a Japanese mother, Tomie Ohtake, one of the greatest artists in Brazil. Since her family arrived in 1936, emigrating from Kyoto, the name Ohtake has long brought to mind images of art and poetry in the form of curves and colors. The architect has a number of creative and contrasting works located throughout the country, including the Campo Grande aquarium in the Pantanal wetlands region, the Estação dos Práticos in the Santos harbor area and the Memorial da Cidade in the state of Piauí. In São Paulo, he has worked on the cultural center, Centro Cultural Tomie Ohtake, the Renaissance Hotel and a horizontal 23-block housing project in the district of Heliópolis, one of the largest lower income neighborhoods in the São Paulo metropolitan area, for which the architect choose, as a differential, one of his passions, the colors.
“I like the colors of commitment, like blue, red, intense yellow, green or purple,” explaining the intense color pallet that he used to paint the facades of the lower income housing project, which gained a new identity within its surroundings. “I make a tremendous effort to resurrect the colors of the city where I have developed my projects,” he explained. Another interesting story about the way in which his works interact with the urban skyline was in 1982, when the State Department, Itamaraty, invited Ohtake to design the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo. The building drew so much attention that it became a pilgrimage site for young architects who wanted to see the works of this Japanese descendant up close and personal. The success and number of people streaming to the Embassy was so large that it had to institute daily visiting hours so that the curious could visit the building. This type of behavior fascinates the architect who confessed, “My dream is that in 50 years my work will be a part of different cities and continue to enchant the public…” with the interest it is already generating, there is no doubt that this will be the case.
EVERGRANDE HUAZHI PLAZA
Evergrande Huazhi Plaza is a mixed-use development located at the heart of Chengdu, containing retail, office, hotel and residential elements. Shopping mall The ONE, super Grade A office Evergrande Huazhi Office Tower and six-star hotel The St. Regis Chengdu are already in operations. Four towers are located and oriented in a way to encourage movements and dynamics around the spine with maximised views. The façade design gives a distinct character to each of the towers yet unifies them in a harmonious way. The hotel tower on the east and office tower on the west form a gateway to the development and drive people flow to The ONE.
The project is located at a site well recognised by the locals, boasting an iconic address in the ancient city. It is steps away from Tianfu Square at the heart of the city and the main retail district along Chunxi Road. The site takes up a whole city block of 250 metres by 150 metres, and is bounded by Taisheng South Road and Tidu Road. The district government plans to revitalise the old city and this project site will be the core of the new central business district of Qingyang District.
All buildings within the Evergrande Huazhi Plaza reveal elements of the natural landscape of Sichuan. Huanglong, literally ‘yellow dragon’, is a scenic spot in the Sichuan province known for the colourful pools formed by calcite deposits. The design of Evergrande Huazhi Plaza drew inspirations from the natural terraced pools to give a regional character to the commercial complex, balance between form and function, and create an urban oasis for within the vibrant city centre.
The ONE is the retail component of the development. Its architectural form, space and materials drew inspirations from the rock pools of Jiuzaigou. The earthtone granites with random patterns and texture translate the rocky element of the natural terrain into the façade design. The architecture incorporates a series of staggering terraces at varying heights to the interior space, creating a fluid form and architectural space in alignment with the overall design of the development.
Along the main street of Taisheng South Road, an array of duplex shops with 12-metre high clear glass shopfronts is designed for flagship stores. Above them is the PALACE Cinema, which is accessible from the outdoor terraces and indoor shopping mall. The six-storey shopping centre offers 72,000 square metres of interior retail space and the 6.45-metre floor-to-floor height allows maximum flexibility for different arrangement of trade-mix. There is a green spine with outdoor escalators and staircases to link up the landscaped terraces on different levels and connect the northern and southern entrance plazas, drawing people from the ground level to the central piazza on the fourth floor. Underneath this gathering place is a central grand atrium with a sculptural skylight and elevators protruding over the piazza.
The green spine also blurs the boundaries between indoor shopping mall and outdoor retail streets. Such spatial design reflects the city's indigenous, outdoor, leisurely lifestyle – providing outdoor terraces for al-fresco dining and pubs and creating an urban park for the community.
The 36-storey Evergrande Huazhi Office Tower offers super Grade A office spaces. It adopts an unitised curtain wall. The glass façade spreads out at the bottom of the building to form an entrance canopy as a distinct feature of the building. The grand entrance lobby is artfully articulated with sculptures, green wall and water features, echoing the verticality and faceted elements of the architecture.
The St. Regis Chengdu is located at the southeast corner of the site, facing the entrance plaza at the major crossroad of the city and ensuring the best city view for the guestrooms. Together with the Evergrande Huazhi Office Tower on the west, they form the entrance gateway that leads to the shopping centre at the heart of the site.
The St. Regis Chengdu has an elegant façade design. Warm colour toned materials such as Brazilian granite, timber-patterned architectural features and pearl white window mullions are used to echo the warm and welcoming hospitality of The St. Regis. The curtain wall system uses glass and granite as two key materials – the unitised glass curtain wall expresses movement and verticality, while the granite cladding shows pride and firmness. The combination of these two elements transforms the hotel tower into an architectural metaphor of mountain and waterfall.
HOTEL BELLEVUE
The original hotel Bellevue was built in 1967 based on the design of a distinguished Croatian architect Zdravko Bregovac. The reconstruction and the extension of the existing hotel were started in the fall of 2013, with the aim of improving the standard of the service with regard to the spatial capacities and the equipment. The Bellevue Hotel experienced a thorough change within a very tight deadline; all projects and works were completed in the period of mere seven months.
The basic spatial concept of the hotel, one shaped around the central atrium has been preserved. It has been extended by the construction of a glazed passage which can be fully opened during the summer months, thus becoming a covered atrium area. The emphasis on the main axis of the hotel which leads to the sea has been additionally supported by the construction of a wide stone access staircase descending to the coastal promenade of Čikat Bay.
On the other side of the hotel, the entrance is emphasized by a new spacious and voluminous eaves. Some of the rooms on the first floor have been torn down so the two-storey areas were created in the lobby and the lounge bar, which evokes the feeling of spaciousness, as well as enhances the perception of the vertical axis of the hotel. On the first and the second floors which have been prerserved, the number of accommodation units has been reduced in order to meet the contemporary standards regarding the size of the hotel room. The height of the areas has also already been set so the area is relatively low. The two added floors were devised and executed in a way that the accommodation units follow the exterior rim, while the hallway follows the rim of the atrium
The storey located below the entrance level includes the pool facilities, fitness and wellness, as well as a Spa clinic. The interior pool is protected by a glazed dome. The outdoor pool and its sunbathing area are directly connected with the interior pool. The irregular shape of the outdoor pool has been divided into two levels which are connected by a waterfall. The lower level of the sunbathing area contains a pool bar.
KATA ROCKS
Contemporary tropical living is what Kata Rocks is all about. Conceived as an ultra-exclusive apartment resort, the emphasis is on clean and uncomplicated space paying homage to the view. 34 oversized apartments, duplexes and penthouses, terraced to take advantage of the natural slope, are fully serviced by all the facilities you would find in a five star resort. Sloping up from massive slabs of granite at the shoreline, each of the ten blocks are carefully positioned in three dimensions to ensure all Sky Villas have a clear, unobstructed view over the Andaman Sea. This has been aided by extensive computer modeling which has been used to prove our assumptions and fine-tune the design. On the top two floors of each block, Ocean Penthouses offer the height of luxury and space and really are 'villas in the sky'. On the water front, four 'Honeymoon Suite' Ocean Lofts along with the dynamic Kata Rocks club with its 35m swimming pool, open onto the very rocks that give this resort its name.
Sater Group's "Cordillera"
Cordillera evokes a strong Mediterranean influence with Terra Cotta roof tiles, carved limestone columns and corbels and cedar beamed pergola. This home's rear elevation is striking with it's dramatic stone clad arched roof element that silhouettes the home's Living Room. The home is embraced by a grand formal pool. Please view this homes floor plan at our website Saterdesign.com and see why this is one of our most popular luxury home plans...