China-based designer Li Xiang, president and creative director of XL-MUSE, completed the Ripple Hotel and its furniture design in seven months in Qiandao Lake, Hangzhou, China. Li Xiang's project is derived from a fully ecological design sense that integrates local materials, textures, fabric and ambiance into the real design by only using wood and bamboo materials. In the Ripple Hotel, each furniture are designed elegantly, simply, sensitively and placed differently to create new atmospheres generated from the landscape, mountainy views and Qiandao Lake. 

''Qiandao Lake is a blessed place surrounded by myriad mountains. In the past few years, the developer has a crush at this place, and the buildings of this project – 12 soho-style villas designed by German GMP, have already been completed two years ago. However, by cherishing this landscape, the develop is very careful about this investment. 

Till the beginning of 2014, the developer finally decided to build a self- managed boutique resort hotel here after multiple considerations, which unveils the designer's fate with it'' explains Li Xiang. 

''Architecture – the 12 buildings uphold the consistent German route of GMP, clean, simple and tidy. Each two-storey building covers an area of 300 m² and rests firmly half way up the hill, half hidden, half revealed. Overlooking the water and sky, it seems to be both harmonious and independent. This premise, is more challenging than the limited time for design and construction that required by the developer'' Li Xiang adds. 

Li Xiang, as an innovative design process, framing environment, materiality, texture and urban fabric at first, painting them carefully and elegantly, and take them into design in a protagonist way. The Ripple Hotel's architectural style is modern and simple, in combination with the limited time that requested by the developer, the designer proposed that the hard decoration  should be simple. 

Therefore, the canvas and stage starts with the pure and clean base. The white floor and the simply whitewashed wall will straightforwardly bring out the interior and exterior dialogue to be staged here, an imaged landscape, and a play without words.

Li Xiang, President/Creative director of XL-MUSE.

''I am not talking about anything about the style of the hotel, but just imagine the feeling at the moment when it leaps to the eyes. I cannot define the elegance or grandeur of the external landscape, but turn my sight and sense to a microcosm into the space. As the space is a drawing board, and I am a painter to paint what I saw into the frame'' says Li Xiang.

The focus of the design logic is to express the form of each set of furniture, and every detail of the expression. Furniture is the protagonist of the play. In the lobby, the studio has caved two leaf boats out of real wood. One of the boats is dangling and floating in the air with a support, like being filled up water here. Oars are artistically screen and ornaments, complemented with the “floating chair” as upright as lotus. 

Meanwhile, the suspended ceiling is made of the grid weaved with the locally produced thin bamboo. Trough the light, the bamboo shadow casts on the white wall. In such a way, create the artistic conception of boat floating on the water. In the restaurant, we embed the withered twig on the surface of the table, in combination with the interaction of light and shadow, to create the feeling of mountain forest. 

In each guest room, the moment fluctuation of pebble touching water embodies in the form of sofa and spreads out several rounds of graceful arc as ripples, which achieves the dynamic and static state of water in the space. The studio selectively looked for a tree, a vine, a pebble, and a creel and carefully put them to their due places as the destined emergence to fill out the primary and secondary roles of the entire composition.

The overall design is wood- and bamboo-based, to express an ecological sense. With dominate tone of pure white, it highlights the tranquility brought by wood, and also reveal a succinct and contemporary fashion. 

The dynamic state is mixed and integrated with static state to indicate the mutual spread of dynamic line and static things. The primitive simplicity and the exquisite carve is crushed by each other. The native texture coexists with the artificial whitewash, to draw a fantasy landscape in the mind of the designer.

Li Xiang graduated from the Birmingham City University authenticated by Architecture association of RIBA. Li Xiang established XL-MUSE Architectural Design Limited in 2011. Cross-field to Interior Design, won several prestigious award, 2015 founded her own furniture brand with the ideology of environmental friendly, quality and speading joy; adding in a touch of humour and minimalist she gets a lot of praises from the medias and fans. 

Project Facts

Project name: Ripple Hotel

Client: Union Developing Group of China - UDC Qiandao Lake Jinxian Bay International Resort

Design Director: Li Xiang

Design Team: Fan Chen, Liu Huan, Tong Ni-Na, Zheng Min-Ping

Design Company: XL-MUSE 

Area: 3300 m2

Location: Qiandao Lake, Hangzhou, China

Rooms: 27

From Design to Completion:7 months

Completion Time: 2015.01

All images © Hu Yi-Jie

> via XL-MUSE