China travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Name: 18 kowloon east
Architect: Aedas
Location: Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, China
Size: 32,400 sq m
Status: Completion 2010

Aedas shared with us their design through a 28-storey mixed-use building which includes housing, offices, retail spaces and a car park. A design with efficient office floor plates and a rational box were requested by the client. With the edifice located in a municipality with dense industrial blocks, instead of providing another work tower entirely wrapped in a coolly glazed skin, the design investigates the possibility of providing an environmentally sustainable form in such an industrial property.

Continue reading Green as a theme

This project is modest addition for the small property of Huairou about two hours drive away from the urban center of Beijing, China. The “Liyuan Library” by Chinese designer Li Xiaodong Atelier is encompassed within a mountainous and forested landscape. The absolutely glazed interior contains mild and contemplative reading spaces and a disposal of platforms which integrate shelving since books. After analyzing the region’s characteristics, an exterior screen clad with ordinary sticks was chosen to conceal the glass facade, receding engrossment the surrounding mystique without competing with it.

Continue reading A quiet, relaxing environment for literary study and entertainment

WUHAO The Teahouse is a Beijing-based concept shop, founded upon the five elements of Chinese philosophy (fire, metal, water, wood, and earth) and showcasing the works of over 55 Chinese and international designers. Especially for Beijing Design Week, the company moved into the two-storey building in the city’s historic Dashilar district to host numbers of installations, including plastic yellow canaries disguised as growing lemons and an bent opening lined with green paper butterflies. The design retailer WUHAO  partnered with the socially responsible Chinese tea company Tranquil Tuesdays to display a new vision of this traditional space.

Continue reading WUHAO The Teahouse

Designed by the GMP Architects, the Universiade Sports Center consists of a stadium, a multifunctional hall and a swimming pool. Universiades are World Games for students and are held every other year in winter and summer, hosted by the International University Sports Federation. The design for the Universiade Sports Center in the city of Shenzhen, China, is inspired by the surrounding undulating countryside and generates a formal dialog that references Chinese horticulture and temper toward the land.

Continue reading The Universiade Sports Center

Chinese architects Atelier 11 recently completed the spherical Diamond Arena in Beijing, China, which seats up to 15,000 spectators and will host international tennis matches. The dedicated China National Tennis Center is a 15,000-capacity stadium which is currently hosting the China Open 2011, starring world class players Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Jurgen Melzer and Andy Roddick.

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On Barbie’s fiftieth birthday, Mattel – the world’s largest toymaker, opened the  first store dedicated to the iconic doll in the world, in Shanghai, China. 3,300 m2 mega-Barbie store holds the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of Barbie dolls and licensed Barbie products. Standing six stories tall, it glows neon pink and cost around 20 million pounds to build. Slade Architecture led the design including the exterior, interior, fixtures, and furnishings.

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Kids in Beijing sure are lucky. The “Kid’s Republic” is a kid’s center with an innovative, playground design. Designed by SAKO Architects, “Kids” is considered as one of world’s best designed children’s bookstores. The design drives your kids crazy, it is so bright and colorful. This imaginative store mimics the look of a fantasyland with its elaborate use of color and fun design elements. Start with an all white bookstore interior – white floors, white ceiling, white walls, white stairs, white bookshelves, white everything – and to that liberally add rainbow colors all over it streams, twists and whirls throughout the store.

Continue reading The first specialized children’s bookstore in China

Located in the northwest of Guilin City, 5 km away from the city’ center, Reed Flute Cave is one of the most popular and most interesting tourist attractions in Guilin, China. According to a legend, the name of the cave is derived from ludi cao (reed grass), which grows in front of the cave and is used to make flutes with melodious sound. It is a natural limestone cave about 240 meters long and it was formed 600,000 years ago. The cave offers a majestic fairyland of karst caves with landscape and rural scenery. It is filled with a large number of stalactites, stalagmites and rock formations in weird and wonderful shapes.

Continue reading The Palace of Natural Arts

Inspired by post-modern artwork from Salvador Dali, the Luxe Manor is located in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui business, entertainment and cultural district, which is considered a destination of great glamour and action in Hong Kong. Only 300 metres from the Space Museum, this boutique hotel boasts fairytale-style interiors and European architecture. Entering inside in The Luxe Manor you will discover a delightfully eclectic mix of Oriental, Post-modern and European decor.

Continue reading An intriguing celebration of the abstract and the extraordinary

Situated in Taipei Songshan District, Taiwan, Core Pacific City is probably the weirdest shopping mall in Asia. When it first opened, it was touted as the world’s first truly 24 hour mall and Asia’s first “city within a city” complex. Covering a total area of 205, 000 sq. m, this urban property was designed by Jon Jerde, known as, the Pablo Picasso of the architecture world.

Continue reading Living Mall