Renewal of the Imperial Trader’s Hotel 外商大酒店更新改造

The predecessor of the renovated Guangzhou Imperial Trader’s Hotel is the Guangdong Foreign Traders Club, which was built in 1989 and was one of the first hotels specifically for foreign affairs in modern China. From Guangzhou Middle Avenue where the Hotel is located, one can hardly imagine that in the early 1990s, the nowaday central business district lined with skyscrapers was nothing but sprawling farmland, the Club and its adjacent Nanfang Daily Newspaper Headquarter were once the only high-rise buildings in the area. With the rapid development of this area from the beginning of the 21st century, the Foreign Traders Club was once one of the most sought-after hotels in the city thanks to its convenient location. However, as the role of serving the needs of “foreign affairs” receded, the Hotel is now keen to re-integrate into the city with a new concept and a new appearance.

Against this backdrop, the new Guangzhou Imperial Trader’s Hotel was re-planned into a complex of hotel, restaurants, retail and co-working area, targeting a younger market and requiring as much cost control as possible. The original building is a typical internationalist style building from the 1980s, which we find necessary to preserve from both aesthetic and conservational perspectives.

The original façade plaster of the tower, which continues serving as hotel, was replaced with a white mosaic veneer, highlighting the building block in a sculptural language while turning the façade into a canvas for the subsequent multimedia lighting. The podium part, which houses the stores, restaurants and co-working area, is wrapped with light-weight louvered aluminum panels and embedded with white indirect light sources, creating a transparent, light and bright appearance. The annex building connected to the tower through a corridor bridge is mainly occupied by stores and restaurants, and serves as an extension of the shopping mall in the tower: this connection is highlighted by the bright red bridge and the façade elements of the same color.

The multimedia lighting on the façade is also particularly thoughtful. B+C collaborated with realities:united to devise a simple geometric design for the tower’s façade; for the podium, the façade’s white embedded light source can be CNC’d to create a pixelated abstract pattern. In contrast to the surrounding buildings that are trying to capture the eyes with brighter, more vibrant, more complex lighting, the Imperial Trader’s Hotel stands out with its “reduced” lighting concept to open up a unique dialogue with the surrounding urban space.