RhineScheme

The 4-star leisure and theme hotel on the banks of a lake, nestled in a subtropical landscape, is part of a tourism complex that the real estate giant 'Wanda Group' has been investing in since 2016 and which in turn is part of a much larger urban development project called 'Chengdu Wanda City'.

The immediate surroundings form a hotel group arranged around an artificially created lake, consisting of a 6-star hotel, a 5-star hotel, the 'Mauve Glamor' brand panda-themed hotel, a conference centre and a bar street, with a total gross floor area of around 140,000 square meters.
‘Mauve Glamor’ Hotel is located in the south-western corner of the complex and develops its own charming inland landscape along the Heishi River, which flows parallel to the lakeshore and is only separated from the lake by a narrow dam.

RhineScheme's planning tasks in this project included the architectural planning of the 'Mauve Glamor' hotel and the preliminary design of the adjacent spa area, and above all the preceding detailed master plan of the entire tourism complex.

Location

The tourist complex is located in the south of the city of Dujiangyan, a tourist destination known throughout China for its ancient irrigation system, which is over 2,200 years old.
Moreover, the hotel group is only a five-minute drive from the 'DuWen' highway, which connects the tourist attractions of Sichuan and Tibet. On the route to Tibet, the complex is the last port of call with upscale hotels.

The hotel complex borders the wide Min River (the longest tributary of the Yangtze) to the east and the Hengduan Mountains with Zhaogong Peak (which is over 2,400 meters high) to the west.
In addition to the existing watercourses, a 7.5-hectare lake has been excavated within the 27-hectare site and enriches the landscape in a special way.

Spa area

The spa area integrated into the complex is located between the “Mauve Glamor” and the neighbouring five-star hotel.
It has a separate external entrance and access from both hotels via a corridor. Besides the 1,800 square meters spa building, the area is also equipped with 7 outdoor pools totalling 2,000 square meters.
The design of the spa building's façade is based on the traditional forms and materials of western Sichuan. However, in order to create a relaxed atmosphere, civil construction methods such as the 'ChuanDou' structure or the so-called “supporting arch” were used.

Theme hotel | Mission

The 'Mauve Glamor' hotel borders the huge 'Wanda Entertainment Park' on the opposite side of the street to the south. Avoiding an overly abrupt change in use (hotel vs. entertainment) was one reason in favour of a themed hotel.
As there are several panda research and conservation parks in the city of Chengdu, just 50 km away, the “World of Pandas” was chosen as the theme for the hotel. The theme was thus rooted in the town in a meaningful way.
At the same time, there was a desire - in contrast to other themed hotels that spring up all over the place and limit theming exclusively to interior design and ornaments - to express the “panda” theme through the building itself.
In contrast to the usual approach with themed hotels, the shape of the building and its façade create a more or less immediate feeling referring to the chosen theme.
The method could and should suggest a certain degree of playfulness. Guests, not least families with children, should be able to sense the “world of the pandas” not only through elements of the landscape and interior design, but also through the building itself.

Architecture and façade

Approaching the hotel from the street, one sees a 6-storey, organically shaped building in a composition reminiscent of several reclining panda bears. The direct connotation was increasingly abstracted in the course of planning, but is still vaguely recognizable on closer inspection.

Originally, the faces and bodies of the pandas were indicated on a white background using dark grey spots and shapes; what remains is the themed bamboo base with the paw-shaped round openings and the pictorial bamboo groves that hide the vertical access cores. As an ensemble and largely abstract, the composition is reminiscent of a natural panda habitat.

On the first floor, large framed windows emerge from the façade and define the main public areas of the hotel.
The building itself consists of four main sections with an undulating façade that opens up to the river and the lake beyond to optimize the view from the guest rooms.
The undulating gesture allows a hotel garden to be framed and enclosed, providing privacy and distance from the lively street.
In keeping with the design approach, the hotel is primarily aimed at families with young children.

The 461 guest rooms in total have balconies facing the water or the equally charming mountain side, which ultimately makes the hotel special not only because of its theme, but also because of its magnificent views of the local scenic attractions.