Stunning underground hotel planned for Shanghai

A new hotel is being built that will extend 328 feet underground, but fear not it will still have a view. 

The Shimao Intercontinental Hotel, is being built in an abandoned quarry near the base of Tianmashan Mountain in the Songjiang district of Shanghai.

The hotel will accommodate 380 rooms over 19 floors, with three of those being above ground, whilst the remainder are built against the face of the 100 meter deep quarry.

The concept is to mimic a waterfall with a glass atrium that will span from the ground-level all the way down into the quarry and was designed by the British engineering firm Atkins Global. It will also blend into the surrounding area via green roofs at the ground level, which will double up as insulation.

To increase the wow factor of the future 5-star resort there are no plans to drain the water from the bottom of the quarry. Instead they will use it as a man-made lake for water sports.

There will also be underwater public areas, including a 10-meter-deep aquarium, alongside the standard amenities you would expect from a luxury hotel; cafes, restaurants, swimming pools, shops and sporting facilities.

Whilst the hotel wont meet the original opening date of May 2009, it is scheduled to be open from late 2014 to early 2015.

CokeHands Campaign wins Cannes Grand Prix

The winner of this year's Cannes Grand Prix was Mak Long who works for Ogilvy & Mather in Shanghai.

The CokeHands campaign ran on bus shelters and in lifts across Shanghai and featured an illustration in which the famous Coke ribbon device is transformed into two hands, one passing the other a Coke.

The campaign ran without a Coke logo or strapline!

Simplicity itself.

Taranta, An Office To Create

When you think of an office, you don't normally realise how different it would look from floor level.

The fascination in the Red Town Office (Shanghai, China) of architecture firm Taranta Creations lies exactly in this difference of perspective.

The building originally hosted a metal factory, and the distance between the structure and ceiling was far too small to accommodate a modern office layout of floor and tables.
Hence the beautiful design, including four working stations placed in the space between the steel profiles. This transforms the floor into a continuous desk, inviting the designers to use the open space for sketching, brainstorming, planning, drawing, modelling and generally creating their new projects. Productive and beautifully informal.

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Images © Shen Qiang / Shen Photo