The Monumental W Guangzhou, China
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his week, boutique DESIGN caught up with celebrated design-duo George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg on their pending property in Guangzhou, China set to open next December. The hotel's design echoes the commercial and cosmopolitan potency of the new Zhujiang district – monumental in scale and supremely stylish – sure to bolster tourism, revenue and a modern aesthetic.
Why do you think W decided to enlist Yabu Pushelberg as the firm for the interior work?
They were excited by our work at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong. They were also interested in working with us because of our past experience with W hotels. By then, we had completed the W Times Square and W Westwood, Whiskey Blue, and were working the concept design for W Milan.
Now that you have worked closely with W, to what do you attribute their growing success during these trying times?
People gravitate to the new and exciting – in a W you feel younger, more chic and “in the know” – it’s an enjoyable, interactive and social experience.
How did you incorporate/honor the brand’s style while also satisfying the particular geographical location, i.e. Guangzhou, China?
In a W, the interior is both a back drop and an event. The central element of the brand is the “living room” concept – the lobby should be an energy. The design should be more than current, it should be new. This is very much in keeping with the spirit of modern day China. We choose not to look to the past but to look toward the future for our design inspiration. At the same time, we didn’t want to be throw-away or trendy. In the lobby/living room, we created a monumental scale room, which we hope will be awe-inspiring. But if a space is too monumental, it fails to lend to that social aspect that’s so important in the W. We looked then to bringing down the scale by employing champagne glass fins to create smaller “rooms” in the space. There you can sit and watch and interact. Around the perimeter walls, at eye level, we are installing a wire sculpture, meant to evoke the mountains of China. The final layer is the furniture, which is intended to have a personal, eclectic feeling, as though it was shopped for over time. In the lobby space are three ante-rooms – the reception area, the lobby bar, and the private lounge. Each room has a specific blast of color and a sculpture form. In the private lounge we are suspending a shallow disk, in which you can lean back and smoke a cigar. The lobby bar, surrounded by gold glass walls has an amorphic molded bar. The reception area has hammered metal “boomerang” desks above which hangs a sculpture commissioned by James Robertson Art Consultants.
What makes the W Guangzhou, China stand out among other hotels in the area and among Yabu Pushelberg’s previous designs?
In Guangzhou, a lot of the hotels are vanilla and seem somewhat off-the-shelf and a little bit like office interiors. We strive to look at scale, portion and detail in new ways. We study materials and customize finishes in order to give a fresh approach to our design work and we hope to create hotels that are as comfortable as a home. Each new project is a new opportunity for us to reinvent ourselves.
What materials were you drawn to use and why?
It’s not really any specific material that we are drawn to, but the combination and tension that can be created with materials that interest us. We tend to look towards real materials like great stones, glass, wood etc. and close to the body we look to linens, wools and leather. We try to stay away from things that are “plastic” and disposable. We look to materials that have a timeless feel.
What inspires you?
We’re inspired by the 'University of Walking Around'.
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