Park Hyat Suzhou

Client
Park Hyatt / Gold Mantis Enterprise
Team
Architect: Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Interior: Hersch Bender Associates
Duration
Completed 2020
4 years – design and construction
Size
47,200 m2 / 507,800 ft2
Units
179 Rooms / 72 Residences
Role
Concept, Schematic Design, and Design Development (1 yr)
Awards
Gold Award – Best Hotel & Tourism MIPIM Asia 2021
Architectural Design of the Year – LIV Hospitality Design Awards 2020
Annual Public Building Gold Award 2020

Park Hyatt Suzhou provides a destination hospitality with craftsmanship, style, and design sensibilities, along the historic city’s lakefront.

Background

Inspired by the world renowned Suzhou Gardens, both the façade and the interior of the project connect the guests and residence to the natural surroundings. The filigree screens seen in the gardens were abstracted and reinterpreted into a simplified, ornamental screen on the buildings’ façade. This contrasts with the simpler primary terracotta cladding, conceived as a reference to the traditional Suzhou plasterwork that wraps many of the city’s buildings. With stepped massing and private terraces, each with exceptional views, the rooms are designed to provide an experience more akin to an intimate vacation home than a hotel.

Contrary to the typical design approach, the Park Hyatt Suzhou was designed primarily from the inside-out, with a focus on hotel amenity and premium interior spaces. The structural planning, too, was done with the hotel bays in mind, and the resulting five meter clear rooms achieved the luxurious ambitions of the hotel while maintaining consistency from a planning perspective.

Concept

Located adjacent to a beautiful waterfront park, the Park Hyatt Suzhou reimagines the gardens of Suzhou in a residential-inspired hotel. The project aims to connect guests to Suzhou’s landscape tradition with rooms and amenities that open directly to external gardens. Within the stepped massing, many rooms have private terraces and all have landscape views. A showcase of craftsmanship, style, and design sensibilities, the hotel provides a contemporary, destination-level hospitality experience.