New Shanghai Hotel is Built Inside a Disused Quarry

Songjiang, Shanghai, China

History

In March 2013, Quarry Associates(HK) Ltd and its Chinese registered, Shanghai-based Architectural, Interior design and Planning studio JADE Ltd (Jochman Architecture Design Environment Ltd set up by the original concept designer and project director of the Quarry hotel Martin Jochman) signed contract in Shanghai with the developer Shimao, for the remaining design stages and coordination/overview of the construction of this unique project.

Whilst Martin Jochman was the original designer of the winning concept of the International competition held in 2006 and oversaw the scheme design development with ATKINS in the UK and in Shanghai, his design studio JADE + QA, has for past 6 years been progressing and completing this work for Shimao, finalising the design, producing construction information and coordinating the Landscape, Interior and Structural/Civil engineering design. Martin has therefore been the Architect for the project from the commencement in July 2006 until the completion of the project in November 2018.

Hotel Completion and Opening

Following an extensive design development over past 6 years by JADE+QA, the construction of this project, featuring 337 guestrooms, 5-star Intercontinental resort located in approximately 280x220m, 88m deep, water-filled disused quarry, is now completed and has been opened to the public on 15th November 2018. Having completed a difficult task of stabilizing the cliff faces adjacent to the hotel wings in late 2015, the foundations and substructure on the quarry floor level were completed in 2016. The spectacular steel structure of the quest wings within the quarry has been commenced in February 2016. The internal fit out and the extensive landscape have been completed in October 2018.

Technical Details

The building concept retains its original ‘ ground scraper’ character with only 2 of the building’s levels above the ground and 16 levels, cascading down the rugged quarry cliff face. The 2 lowest levels are underwater with one level utilized as guest rooms and public areas such as restaurants, facing an underwater aquarium, thus creating another unique aspect of this hotel resort. The hotel also features a large conference/ballroom center together with water-based leisure facilities and swimming pools on the quarry bottom water level. Externally, there are extensively landscaped visitor facilities, such as an outdoor-themed entertainment park and cantilevered glass floor overlook walkway.

Apart from minimizing the impact of this building on the local environment by adopting a low profile covered with a grass roof, the hotel features a spectacular ‘glass waterfall’ structure to house the vertical circulation core with observation lifts. The mainly passive sustainable features will take advantage of the orientation, low profile, grass roof and the unique microclimate caused by the thermal properties of the quarry rock mass and the quarry lake, cooling the structure in the summer and heating in the winter.

In fact, this successful ‘Brownfield’ site utilization of a disused industrial quarry site will make this project important contribution to the principles of sustainability in China. The engineering challenges facing this project had to solve unusual problems of the seismic implications of the ‘tall building fixed at both ends’ and the associated problems of fire safety, drainage, water quality and circulation associated with its unique location and the fact that the building is an inverted ‘ground scraper’.

Project Details

Project: Shimao Wonderland Intercontinental
Location: Songjiang, Shanghai, China
Developer: Shimao Group
Operator: IHG ( Intercontinental Hotels Group )
Architect: Martin Jochman Dip Arch RIBA – STUDIO JADE+QA (Concept with ATKINS)
Timeline: 2006 -2018
Opened: 15th November 2018

Building Area: 62,171.9m2
Number of Guestrooms: 337
Number of floors: 2 Above Ground level, 16, Below ground level, (2 underwater