We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Shaun Lee about their original and creative Hotel design work. Shaun Lee is an award-winning architectural designer, that makes our world a better place with their original hotel works.
Shaun Lee ("SL") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Aoxin Holiday Hotel. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : We will promote the award-winning works to make it have a certain social influence.
SL : The concept design lasted one month in the early stage, and deepening and implementing the design lasted about six months in the later stage.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : The world's top hotel investor and top hotel brand management company.
SL : 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.
SL : The name comes from the inspiration of the design and the local cultural symbols, as well as the location and attributes of the project.
SL : 3dmax、SketchUp、Rhino、 AutoCAD、photoshop
SL : The method of space organization and the shape of the cave.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : 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.
SL : No more things to cover. Thank you.
