Eastern Promise

Eastern Promise

April 1, 2008

By Jo Baker
Photography by Blain Crellin

"Everyone points the finger at China when pollution comes up," says Jules Kwan, co-founder of the country's newest hotel chain, URBN Hotels & Resorts. "But it's changing from the top down. I strongly believe that in the next five years every hotel in China could be carbon neutral."

Though a little grandiose perhaps, Kwan's prediction came the day before the Chinese government announced a coming nationwide ban on non-essential plastic bags; a sentiment that bodes well for the chain's (and the country's) first carbon neutral hotel. Combining cosmopolitan flair with local flavor, URBN Hotels Shanghai was designed to plug the gap between the city's 5-Star uber-brands and its dowdy business options, and its opening in January has given travelers the chance to make a small but crucial difference to China's eco-reputation.

Tucked between cheap clothing stores and small two-story houses downtown, the hotel is housed in a converted post office building from the '70s, laid out around a traditional gray paved courtyard with a bamboo winter garden. Inside, the Shanghai landscape of brick, tile, and slate has been translated rather literally. "We took elements from old Chinese houses being demolished," says Kwan, whose company Space Development has done a number of project renovations using salvage. "All the bricks and the wooden floors are around 70 or 80 years old. The rest was bought locally." The 26 guestrooms by Brazilian designer Tais Cabral (who now calls Shanghai home) are a contemporary, masculine combination of rough gray slate and brick, but the warmth of old Chinese mahogany lends them a ski-chalet ambience. Textured materials and an architectural playfulness—sunken lounge areas, baths in the bedrooms, and rooms raised on various levels—liven up a simple scheme.

The hotel's eco elements are unobtrusive. Live bamboo has been planted for solar shading, and rainwater basins and water-based air-conditioning systems have been installed—less harmful than those using HCFCs (Hydrochlorofluorocarbons). "Lighting was an adventure," says Canadian designer Raefer Wallis, one of the founders of Shanghai-based firm A00 Architecture, which handled the hotel's spatial concept, interior, and facade design. "Nice mood lighting needs halogens, which burn a lot of energy. We spent a month and a half experimenting with compact fluorescent lighting, and finally realized that if we house them in lanterns, we can retain the mood."

The owners say that the total amount of energy consumed by the hotel—including staff commutes and guest energy consumption—will be calculated and neutralized with the purchase of carbon credits. These will pay out to green energy development in China.
For more information, visit www.urbnhotels.com or www.azerozero.com.

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