News releases
Iconic Lotus Hotel opens for business - 03 February 2012
The Atkins-designed 355-room five star Crowne Plaza Hotel has opened to visitors, and forms a key component for the development of the new port city of Lingang. The so-called ‘Lotus Hotel’ sits in the middle of a perfectly circular 500 hectare lake near Shanghai in China and is the centrepiece of the area masterplan.
Atkins was appointed by the developer Shanghai Harbour City Group to provide architecture, planning and landscape consultancy services. The company has produced a dramatic design that combines architectural excellence with a highly functional hotel layout. The central drum, containing the reception and lobby, connects the hotel’s five ‘leaves’, containing either hotel rooms, restaurant spaces or meeting rooms. These leaf forms challenge the typical hotel layout plan by introducing atrium gardens, bringing natural light into each area.
Atkins’ design director, Eddie Cassidy, commented: “The client’s brief called for a striking landmark, but limited the height to only 15 metres. Our competition-winning design adopted the image of a natural form, a lotus flower that appears as though it is floating in the middle of a circular lake.”
The Lotus Hotel’s official opening will take place in the spring. It is the latest in a portfolio of creative and innovative building solutions provided by Atkins’ architecture and urban design team in China and the SE Asia region. Other hospitality projects in the region include the MIPIM gold award-winning Intercontinental Hotel for Shimao in Songjiang, ongoing design work for an Alila Resort Complex in Li Shui, and recent hotel commissions for the developers Huarong and Donglord.
Ends
|
|
Notes to editors: Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading engineering and design consultancies*, employing some 17,700 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. It has the breadth and depth of expertise to plan, design and enable some of the world's most technically challenging and time critical infrastructure projects. * It is the largest engineering consultancy in the UK (New Civil Engineer Consultants File 2011) and the 13th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2011). Recent projects include: - Major infrastructure works, such as the design and programme management of the civil works for the Dubai Metro red and green lines in the UAE;
- Key rail projects – providing architectural and engineering design services on Crossrail, Europe’s biggest civil engineering project in London, UK, and designing stations, tunnelling and track systems for Gautrain, South Africa’s first high speed line;
- Renewable energy schemes - transformer platform design for the Thanet offshore wind park in the UK’s North Sea;
- Multi-year architecture-engineering construction management services for the US National Park Service, including projects such as rehabilitation of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Administrative Complex at California’s Death Valley to meet the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification standards;
- High profile transport planning and urban design – our innovative scheme to deliver a diagonal crossing at Oxford Circus in London, UK, has helped tackle the problem of pedestrian crowding;
- Water and environmental projects – critical programme management of storm protection works in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Southern Louisiana in North America, providing expertise in coastal restoration, engineering, environmental and GIS support to rebuild defenses and protect habitats;
- Multidisciplinary building design – Northwood Primary School in Darlington, UK, is an exemplar project which raises standards for environmental design and community engagement.
Atkins was named among The Sunday Times 25 Best Big Companies to Work For 2011, won Consultancy of the Year in the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards 2010, received the first ever certification of the Carbon Trust Standard awarded to an engineering consultancy in the construction sector, and was included in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2011 and The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2010. Atkins was also construction and civil engineering sector winner for the fifth consecutive year in the Target National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2010 and was awarded a RoSPA Gold Award 2011 for excellence in control of health and safety in the workplace. Atkins is the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. |