Hotel Resonance Taipei: a lively interplay of projection and recession
KRIS YAO | ARTECH
Hospitality
/
Completed
Hotel Resonance Taipei is located on an L-plan corner site near Taipei Main Station business district. It is a narrow 14-story slab of 175 guest rooms extending east-west, on a double-height restaurant wing running north-south. The hotel is an urbane addition to an aged neighborhood and a model for the redevelopment of old apartment buildings on adjoining streets. The project was designed during 2013-2017, and completed in 2019. The site is about 3,600㎡, and the gross floor area is approximate 18,700㎡. The hotel rooms are arranged on the third to the fourteenth floor, and the service facilities on the second floor. The transparent public hall and coffee shop on the ground floor provide sight connection, and enhance the daily interaction between the neighborhoods. When the day gets dark, the light glowing from inside illuminates nearby streets, creating a lively night scene.
The design of Hotel Resonance evolved from a simple right-angled building, to a lively interplay of projection and recession. Several bays of the building jut out like half-open drawers in a chest and the main block is set back 13 meters on the north side, to provide a landscaped forecourt that’s open to the public. Pergolas formed from steel outriggers extend out to north and south, mediating between the slab and open space. To make the hotel more efficient and environmental-friendly, the building, including columns, slabs and exterior walls, is all constructed with precast concrete system, to reduce the noise, pollution, waste generation and traffic impact to the local neighborhood. The existing trees on site were moved to safe ground during the construction, and are re-planted back to the courtyard when the hotel is completed. The hotel incorporates environmental sustainability and energy efficiency in design and construction process, and is awarded with the green building certificate (EEWH).
The building blocks are also enriched with varied fenestration that creates a lively surface rhythm. Vertical slits of different widths filter light on the long facades. The short east and west ends of the slab have oversized square windows and a projecting bay over the entry serves as a gallery. That alternation of expansive and restrained gives each side of the building its own character and it is a rare example of an architecturally imaginative hotel. Public spaces, and especially the coffee shop, are generous volumes for meeting and entertaining, while the rooms are compact and elegant for business travelers. The hotel makes inventive use of its confined site and serves as a welcome amenity for local residents.
Credits
Taipei
Taiwan
Confidential
12/2019
18700 mq
Kris Yao
KRIS YAO | ARTECH
Curriculum
KRIS YAO | ARTECH is an Asia-based architectural firm comprised of more than 160 professionals with offices in Taipei and Shanghai. Kris Yao, Hon. FAIA, established the firm in Taipei in 1985. The firm is hailed as one of the best professional practices in Asia as well as the most internationally renowned firm. The firm’s projects are mainly located in the Greater China area, but are also found in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. The firm’s portfolio demonstrates years of practice in commercial, hospitality, cultural/educational, transportation, performing centers, residential, spiritual, and urban design.
KRIS YAO | ARTECH’s design philosophy strives to achieve excellence in design, by respecting and incorporating the needs of the clients and functionality, finding ways to employ innovative yet appropriate technologies to create architectural spaces that integrates a sense of scale and place, the cultural context, and spirituality.