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Stefano Boeri designs vertical forest hotel for Cachet resort in China
Tree-loving Italian architect Stefano Boeri has lined up his next forest-inspired project: a resort property in China’s Guizhou province.
The Cachet Hotel Group has announced Boeri will partner with acclaimed local artist Simon Ma to build the centrepiece of Cachet Wanfeng Valley – its first resort development in Asia.
The group has unveiled renderings of the pair’s design for a striking “lifestyle destination” with trees on every terrace.
The building will feature a 182-room Cachet Resort Hotel and a 71-room URBN hotel, two restaurants and lounges, a swimming pool, spa and fully equipped fitness centre.
The resort will feature a Cachet Hotel cSPA – an environmental and design-led new concept created by consultancy and management firm WTS.
The Wanfeng Valley resort is being developed across 49.4 acres in the Xingyi City by its owner, the Guizhou Wanfeng Valley Ecological Cultural & Tourism Development Company. It will be located close to major shopping, dining, convention and entertainment outlets, the city’s airport and a high-speed rail station set to open in 2020.
“Travellers can look forward to an unrivalled dimension of authentic local discovery, new experiences and innovative designs from the iconic Cachet and eco-friendly URBN brands,” said the group’s co-chairm, Liang Shang Yan.
Boeri has built a reputation for his use of plants and flowers in urban environments, and his famous residential Vertical Forest in Milan was named the Best Tall Building Worldwide for 2015 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
He has been commissioned to develop the vertical forest concept on several Chinese projects, including a stock exchange building in Shanghai and a new green ‘forest city’ masterplan in Wanfeng.
The latter project – which is also funded by the Guizhou Wanfeng Valley Ecological Cultural & Tourism Development Company – will interweave streets, dining areas, pavilions and villages with farmland, orchards, gardens and other natural space to create a “new model of living”.
The merging of forests and architecture is one of the fastest-growing trends in the industry. In recent months, CLAD has reported on a city for 20,000 people made entirely from bamboo, a mountain-inspired Shanghai district by Thomas Heatherwick and a jungle-infused tower scheme in Singapore.