Platinum Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2020
Aoxin Holiday Hotel
by Shaun Lee
- A' Design Award 2020 Platinum Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: ADDDESIGN Co., Ltd.
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 1,098,353
- Verification code EFD73D4240 · Verify this award
About Aoxin Holiday Hotel
The hotel is located in Luzhou, Sichuan Province, a city well known for its wine, whose design is inspired by the local wine cave, a space that evokes a strong desire to explore. The lobby is the reconstruction of a natural cave, whose related visual connection extends the concept of the cave and the local urban texture to the internal hotel, thus forming a distinctive cultural carrier. Designers value the passenger's feeling when staying in the hotel, and also hope that the texture of the material as well as the created atmosphere can be perceived on a deeper level.
Shaun Lee's Aoxin Holiday Hotel represents a distinguished achievement in contemporary hospitality interior design, demonstrating how architectural space can orchestrate experiential narrative through the sophisticated deployment of material, light, and proportion. The design engages with a lineage of monumental lobby traditions while articulating a distinctly contemporary material sensibility, where the variegated grey stone cladding suggests geological permanence and regional material heritage translated through precision contemporary fabrication. The compositional strategy establishes a central axis through the prominent white column that simultaneously divides and unifies the visual field, creating a bilateral organization that invites processional movement while maintaining visual coherence across the expansive volume. The stepped platform in the foreground functions as both practical level change and ceremonial threshold, its horizontal striations of grey marble establishing rhythmic progression that prepares visitors for spatial ascent. Particularly notable is the chromatic restraint that allows the singular golden sculptural arch to achieve maximum visual impact, this warm metallic element introducing organic curvature against the prevailing rectilinear geometry while suggesting symbolic passage or transformation. The lighting design demonstrates considerable sophistication, layering ambient illumination with focused accent and intimate step lighting to create zones of varying intensity that guide movement and establish hierarchy without competing with material presence. The balustrade system threads brass-toned accents throughout the space, creating subtle chromatic echoes that reward attentive viewing. One might observe how the design balances monumental scale with human proportion, the furniture groupings visible in the middle ground suggesting intimate gathering within the larger ceremonial volume. The viewer is invited to consider how architecture shapes anticipation and arrival, how material choices communicate cultural values, and how the interplay of permanence and warmth creates spaces that honor both tradition and contemporary sensibility.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The design of the hotel is an extension and evolution of local culture. As the mystery of natural cave arouses curiosity, the lobby is a reconstruction of natural cave amongst which places a series of unconnected hollow stones. The unknown and the unpredictable inside the stones is released by excavating internal stone, forming a private and semi-invisible surroundings, which creates a continuous experience of opening and enclosing through the interior of the stone and the gap between the stone.
- Tags
- Hotel, Interior, Design, Aoxin, ADDDESIGN, Cave, Wine cave
- Design Challenge
- The cave construction is complex with strict requirement on the accuracy of each procedure. First the designer built virtual model and split into curved surfaces, then the manufacturer completed the model using GRG and cut it into several modules, which were sent to the scene for splicing, finally steel frame was built tosuspend and fix the fragments.
To pave mosaic in the inner wall of the cave, mosaic stitching is squeezed due to area shrinkage. The designer reversed deformation seam, increased the number of segments horizontally and set the starting point for each one, forming a order. - Project Duration
- The project started in luzhou, sichuan province in June 2018 and was completed in luzhou, sichuan province in August 2019.
- Operation Flow
- When the customers enter the hotel, they pass through the interior of the stone and the gap between the stone to form a continuous experience of opening and enclosing caused by alternation of light and space. The hotel's atmosphere is not spring of brightness, but another kind of hazy, mystery and massive beauty. In some light environment full of metaphorical meaning, people can perceive tranquility and peace themselves.
- Research
- The design inspiration from wine hiding cave reflects our perception of the unknown, or the relationship with the unknown. In the wine hiding cave, open the door of self perception until you see everything through the narrow crack. Winemaking in Luzhou has a historyof thousands of years since the Qin and Han Dynasty. The three natural wine caves therehave been and will continuously be usedfor the storage of originalwine. The cave’s dark environment has formeda state of naturallyclosed, constant temperature and humidity, providing a placefor esterificationand ripeness of the wine.
- Inspiration
- AOXIN Holiday Hotel is located in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, a city well known for its wine and regarding wine culture as its root. The hotel is inspired by the wine hiding cave (namely a cave used to store liquor) in Luzhou, a place that evokes a strong desire to explore.
- Image Credits
- ADDDESIGN Co., Ltd, 2019
Colors of Aoxin Holiday Hotel
Get Aoxin Holiday Hotel
Award-Winning Hotel and Hospitality Interior Design
We specialize in creating transformative interior spaces for luxury hotels, restaurants, and high-end residences. With experience designing over 50 deluxe hotels for international brands like Hilton and Mandarin Oriental, we bring cultural narratives to life through innovative spatial design.
G0E3 ShopDesign Interview about Aoxin Holiday Hotel
The hotel is inspired by the wine hiding cave in Luzhou, a place that evokes a strong desire to explore. The mysterious natural cave arouses curiosity, among which the stones penetrate both inner and outer space. At the end of the known and the unknown, it is the perception that lies in the middle.
The focus is to create a space with a unique sense of experience and visual memory, carrying the city's historical and cultural characteristics. The design purpose of the project is to enhance the image of the city and spread the city brand as well as hotel brand.
We will promote the award-winning works to make it have a certain social influence.
The concept design lasted one month in the early stage, and deepening and implementing the design lasted about six months in the later stage.
The purpose of the client is to allow the project to achieve an intuitive experience of the local culture in a spatial way, so as to promote the hotel brand and the city brand. Therefore, we sought for a suitable concept from this angle, and finally chose the concept of natural wine hiding cave of Luzhou cave. Merging modern interpretation with artistic way, while seeking changes in the order, an abundant space is combined to achieve dramatic expression of the place and make everyone immersed in the charm of the hotel.
This is a customized design for this brand and this hotel. The space design is more about providing customized services according to specific conditions and specific needs, so we will solve different problems according to different needs in different projects.
In the existing Chinese hotel market, more works use relatively traditional and conservative strategies, pursue versatility and universality, and meet basic accommodation needs in an efficient way. We want to provide another possibility, namely a design work with strong experience, drama and immersion for this market through this project. Bringing more vitality and multiple choices for the industry is the original intention of our design.
I like Louis Isadore Kahn’s architectural works. His spatial construction logic and the influence of space on human emotions are all parts that I love and are exploring. I also like the hotel design works of Yabu Pushelberg. Their application of contemporary art in the space is worth learning.
The world's top hotel investor and top hotel brand management company.
The sense of experience of architectural space and the use of art in space. This work, different from decorative design, creates a strong feeling from the deeper logic and presents in a simple and pure way. This is why it is different from other works.
The name comes from the inspiration of the design and the local cultural symbols, as well as the location and attributes of the project.
3dmax、SketchUp、Rhino、 AutoCAD、photoshop
The method of space organization and the shape of the cave.
I collaborated with my team on this design. The team is composed of different professional backgrounds such as structural design, process design and soft design.
Three-dimensional surface modeling and dismantling huge three-dimensional surfaces in the factory and then implementing them in a mechanized manner are the core technologies in this work. Its role is to make the shape of this space more vital, unique and bright.
Yes, and very important.
In the early stage of the design, the team sampled and analyzed the data that affected the design, such as urban economic data, urban population data, population composition and population mobility. It was through these analyses that we had a comprehensive and accurate positioning of this design, and used the data to check whether the design deviated from the track or achieved the goal during the design process.
In the early stage of the design, the team sampled and analyzed the data that affected the design, such as urban economic data, urban population data, population composition and population mobility. It was through these analyses that we had a comprehensive and accurate positioning of this design, and used the data to check whether the design deviated from the track or achieved the goal during the design process.
The construction of the cave is one of the difficulties when constructing the hotel due to its complicated process. First the designer needed to construct the virtual model via rhino, then split the curved surface after CAD’s calculating three-dimensional data, and then cut it into several modules by the manufacturer using GRG material, after that transported it to the scene for splicing. The construction personnel builds steel frame to suspend and fix the module fragments circumferential and radially along the curve on the back side of the surface, and finally completed the shape construction.
First of all, it depends on our confidence in the work. We hope that this work can have an influence on the industry, and that the work can have a wider exposure and be widely discussed under more attention at the same time. Based on these discussions and evaluations, we can obtain feedback on our design methods and design styles to verify our thinking and methodology and provide soil for better design works in the future.
Due to the complexity of this project, there used to be many difficulties in the design and execution of this project. In this project, I have a deeper understanding of the importance of persistence and perseverance, and at the same time, I believe that design is a dynamic process. In the design process, construction process, and even the usage process, the role of people in space is part of the design. Making responsive decisions based on site conditions and changes in existing conditions, continuously thinking and making response in the process are important factors in the design's perfect presentation and design's full of vitality.
No more things to cover. Thank you.