We daresay that this hotel in China’s Yunnan province won’t be winning any prizes any time soon for grammatically precise branding. However, there’s no gainsaying its thoughtful intentions and the purpose of its designers, Co-Direction Interior Design who have transformed a former private residence into a charming 19-room property.
The location of the hotel – in the middle of Dali’s old city – informs much of its aesthetics. In particular, the layered courtyards and the extensive use of bamboo, grey bricks, peaked roofs and exposed raftered ceilings are a gentle ode to traditional residential architecture. Gentle, because Co-Direction hews off the classic references in the bedrooms with rigorously modern and customized furnishings.
‘We respected the character of the original public spaces,’ says design director Jiang Xiao-Lin. ‘We didn’t do much design here, except to enrich the spatial experience with furnishings. It was in the guestrooms that we were particularly able to express the local tradition in a contemporary way.’
The amenities are fairly limited – there is no spa and the bijou restaurant serves only breakfast – though the hotel is particularly enthusiastic about the reflective pond on the ground floor whose mirror-flat surface brings in the sky through the elongated sky-well. Meanwhile, an outdoor deck offers lovely views of distant Cangshan mountains.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
53 Bo Ai Road
PHOTOGRAPHY
Jing Xu-Feng
-
Vestre’s neo-brutalist furniture will bring ‘a little madness’ to Paris Fashion WeekBound for Paris Men’s Fashion Week this month, Norwegian furniture brand Vestre reveals a sculptural bench and mirror created with designer Vincent Laine and fashion creative Willy Cartier – the latest outcome of its risk-taking ‘a little madness’ initiative
-
For its latest runway show, Zegna creates a serene oasis in DubaiThe Italian fashion house took over the Dubai Opera for a S/S 2026 show that proposed a lived-in elegance, drawing inspiration from Dubai’s sunbaked landscapes and Zegna’s birthplace of Trivero
-
Time-travel to the golden age of the cruise ship at Sea Containers LondonThe South Bank hotel celebrates its tenth anniversary with four new suites inspired by period cabin design, from Edwardian elegance to 1980s glamour
-
Tour the best contemporary tea houses around the worldCelebrate the world’s most unique tea houses, from Melbourne to Stockholm, with a new book by Wallpaper’s Léa Teuscher
-
Prada and Wong Kar-wai dream up a cinematic restaurant in ShanghaiPrada partners with Wong Kar-wai to bring Mi Shang Rong Zhai to life, a dining experience influenced by the arthouse director’s seminal oeuvre
-
Enjoy heritage views and contemporary brews at a new Beijing caféJM Café, White Pagoda Temple by B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio nods to the history of the Xicheng District while injecting a shot of vitality
-
Must-visit cinemas with award-worthy designThere’s more magic to the movies at these design-led cinemas, from Busan Cinema Centre’s ‘flying’ roof to The Gem Cinema Jaipur’s art deco allure
-
China’s Alila Shanghai hotel is a stylish hub of idle tranquillityAlila Shanghai, the brand's first urban resort in Greater China, is a serene bolthole amidst the pulse of the Jing'an district
-
2025 getaways: where Wallpaper* editors will be travelling to this yearFrom the Japanese art islands of Naoshima and Teshima to the Malaysian tropical paradise of Langkawi, here’s where Wallpaper* editors plan to travel to in 2025
-
Travel back to the Ming dynasty at Beijing’s new Mandarin Oriental hotelMandarin Oriental Qianmen merges traditional culture with contemporary needs in a 600-year-old historical building complex
-
Inside Palazzo Versace Macau, a lavish, mosaic-rich hotelPalazzo Versace Macau, the brand’s first hotel in Asia, continues to preserve Donatella Versace’s swanky hospitality vision
