MAD’s ring-shaped Sheraton Hotel made of concrete, glass and aluminium

Tai Lake Hot Spring Resort in Huzhou, China is a building which is reflected in the water so that its arch is completed, becoming a concrete ring clad in glass and aluminium.
It wasn’t easy to build a hotel 120 metres high in the shape of an arch on the shore of the lake, but MAD architects managed to do it, designing a building with advanced structural performance that is capable of withstanding not only wind load but the telluric stress the land it stands on is subject to.
A prismatic skyscraper, with its elasticity for dissipating seismic waves, might have created more problems. This is why the arch shape of the new hotel not only made the entire structure more rigid, eliminating most of the oscillation that very tall structures normally have to withstand, but also provided the proprietor with two towers linked via a bridge structure offering guests breath-taking views over the landscape.
The structural challenge is brilliantly met with a reinforced concrete box-like core around which the hotel rooms are arranged. As the hotel rises, its tips come together, maintaining its shape and unifying the two weight-bearing pylons.
This design expedient offers benefits for both structure and distribution, avoiding almost all the problems involving static moment generated where the girder joining the two towers is fitted, a problem that would have arisen if the structure had been built with a classic trilithic shape. This apparently simple technology ensures that the entire weight-bearing structure seems to disappear from view, so that guests can enjoy a landscape of great beauty free of visual obstructions. In the same way, the city acquires an urban characterisation that had been lacking, even though Huzhou is so famous for the silk trade that it has been nicknamed “Silk City”.

Fabrizio Orsini

Location: Huzhou, China
Program: Hotel Building Area: 59,686 sqm
Building Height: 120 m
Associate Engineers: Shanghai SianDai Architecture Design (Group) Co., Ltd.,
Structural Engineer: China Majesty Steel Structural Design Co., Ltd.,
Façade/Cladding Consultants: Zhejiang Zhongnan Curtain Wall Co., Ltd., Shanghai Timalco Curtain Wall Engineering Co., Ltd.,
Landscape Architect: EDSA - Landscape Design
Directors in Charge: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano Design Team: Xue Yan, Tony Yam, Zhao Wei, Yu Kui, Eric Baldosser, Qui Gao, Xiang Ming, Fu Changrui, Zheng Tao, Zhang Yihang, David William, ItzhakSamun, RuiXiaolon, Wang Wei, Wang Xiaopeng, XieXinyu, Ye Jingyun, Zhang Fan, Liu Jinbao, Ma Rui