Conrad Beijing Peeks From Behind The Curtains

Where: Wangfujing Rd, Beijing, China

November 17, 2011 at 9:05 AM | by ASchechter | Comments (0)

Designboom got a peek at the new Conrad Beijing, which is still under construction, and is due for a 2012 opening. Around the 300-room hotel are the Peninsula Beiing, Hilton Beijing and Crowne Plaza. Additionally, Starwood's brand new 441-room Sheraton Beijing lies directly north, about 5 miles away.

Conrad Beijing's warped exterior is supposed to evoke ~~The Flintstones~~ "nervous tissue", though we find it strikingly similar to the facade at the new Andaz Shanghai, which also boasts a chunky, grid-like white exterior. Conrad's is decidedly more trippy, which makes sense, as Conrad, though always elegant, likes to keep things playful. A Shake Shack here, a submarine there. And now a big, white tower of blobs.

As Designboom explains, the exterior mimics "nervous tissue" in the way that the blobs expand and stretch as the building curves�something the blog also refers to as an "organic envelope."

The blog contrasted earlier renderings of the hotel with shots taken during construction. In these, you can witness the curves of the core structure, the "curtain wall windows" wrapping around the entire building, and the installation of the white facade.

One very cool part is the "elevation diagram" of the facade, which shows the structure of the facade on a 2-D, flattened surface. Here, you can see how the "warped" shapes almost seem to emanate from the hotel's entrance, like ripples on a pond. The entrance then becomes the epicenter, toward which the rest of the building leans. Very cool, Conrad! MAD Architects worked on the design.

[Photos: Designboom]

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