A golden sun sets over the embankment, making the Yangcheng Lake glistening in the sunshine, just like a fairyland, shimmering all the elegance of Suzhou, an ultimate destination of life pursued by people all over the world.
Thousands of years ago, the great statesman and tactician Wu Zixu decided to build the capital of the Kingdom of Wu there following his belief on the god-blessed fortune and good luck on this land. Since then, Suzhou, a land blessed by the god, has grown into an ideal model land of easy poetic life, with its elegance and dignity admired by people all over the world.
Following the poetic inspiration of predecessors, enjoying the leisure and easy scenery, admiring the elegant culture and humanity here, BLVD was commissioned by Indigo, skipping over the elapse of time since immortal, to write a praise song of eternity on this beautiful land.
Here, the elements of nature, all naive and original, are integrated in a perfect way, with the noble and graceful art, expressing the romance of “a hard-won moment of leisure from busy life” here and there.
Meeting, walking, exploring and falling in love……. The spiral stairs, glistening like the golden sun, turn round and round, just like the entrance of a labyrinth, holding the space into endless mystery.
The unrestrained unique originality shows the neighborhood culture of Indigo to the extremity, tender, soft, but all of strength, warm, resonant, and beautiful.
The lobby unveils the curtain to a funny traveling, following the theme of “Warm Sunshine over the Yangcheng Lake”. A big hairy crab, almost alive, stands on the golden brick, full of pride, a vivid and direct presentation of the local culture. Under the golden brick, warm light overflows beam by beam, making the brick glitter like the brocade, cozy wind flows oncoming little by little.
The ethereal but refreshing reception desk looks like a tiny boat floating on the lake, all of modern skills, reminding visitors the immersed experience of rafting in leisure. Along the lakeside, reed and greens overgrown thick and dark. Lamplight penetrates through the trees and branches, leaving dappled shadows on the ground, just like the co-wandering of skylight and clouds, a beautiful encountering here.
The elevator hall sings an eternal praise song to the Yangcheng Lake which has nourished the Suzhou people for generation after generation. Artworks representing the image of fishing net are arranged in parallel with walls decorated with embroidery, a great reproduction of the fishing and textile life of the ancient Suzhou people.
Crab is definitely a great reason which keeps you stay at the Yangcheng Lake.
The bar counter of tender images just like boats parking shoulder by shoulder along the lakeside, enriching the connotation delivered by the unique screens themed with diversified crab and shrimp food and the fancy glass made into crabs, unveiling a beautiful crab banquet.
The lake water ripples tenderly, while the warm comfortable atmosphere makes people calm down. Lanterns made like crab legs make the space here more fashion and funny.
The jade-like meat and the golden-like roe fully fill the crab, while the wine and liquor enrich the youth life. It is the rare delicacy praised by Su Tungpo in his poem reading: “you may laugh at the foodie chief of the prefecture Wuxing, for his offering of one poem for two crabs”, it is also the relaxed and happy moment in good days adored by Li Taibai in his “the pincers hide golden liquor, while distiller packs are the fairyland”.
Splendid colors and elegant forms illustrate the charms of silk and satin, creating a silk-like beautiful dreamland. The wall paper, made following the image of the lotus island on the Yangcheng Lake, with the dark green background look like the lotus leaves stretching all over the pond, explaining the extremely beautiful landscape of “lotus seedpod available in the south region, with lotus leaves overlaid one by one”. What a warm and vigorous picture there!
If there shall be a land comparable to the paradise, it is Suzhou. Suzhou is busy and prosperous, for rich and wealthy business, but more for inclusive humanity and glorious culture. The imagery narration of the space has converted touching historical stories and plots into mellow aesthetics of feeling.
Macaroon colors and rounded forms set forth the simple structure of boutique shop, making Suzhou in the everlasting history folded into an abstract memory space. You can choose whatever you want here and take it away with your own memory about the Yangcheng Lake.
Create the universe even in a tiny space. The art of Suzhou, featured with big wonderful world in a tiny space, illustrates in a vivid way the humanistic feelings and nature ritual order. An ideal place for banquet and feasts, looking like gold, or water, or fire, is really a long picture scroll, full of praises for the abundant reserves of nature’s treasures and wisdom of the human.
Suzhou embroidery pieces, sweet, beautiful, and elegant, create the prosperous life and romantic landscape onto the tiny inch-like space, like a great story which will never end.
Wood grains, some shallow while some others deep, are intermingled together but in good order, showing respect to the delicate, refined, and beautiful knitting skills. The simple but precise background of the nature tells the charm of sports, awakening every cell of your body for unrestrained freedom.
The arc-like dome, made of shells and mosaic tiles, reflect sparkling glories, making the water in the pond extremely clear, as if the pure and clear lake water has flown into the room. What a wonderful leisure time for us now!
We touch poems here, we linger on the nice here. Our journey of discovery about the romantic Yangcheng Lake, has started my missing even though I have not left yet.
Project Name: Hotel Indigo Suzhou Yangcheng Lake
Interior Design-Public Area: BLVD International
Director: Honglei Liu
Participants: Yuxin Yang, Ziying Shao, Jiayu Zhong, Yisheng Xing
Location: Suzhou, China
Area: 3603㎡
Completion time: 2021
Photographer: En Xiao