Rooms for sustainability
Issue 39 - Mar 08

URBN Hotel Shanghai demonstrates that a contemporary and luxurious boutique hotel need not generate a huge ecological footprint.

For the modern business traveler arriving in China's hippest city, there is a myriad of high-end accommodation choices. From the historical Bund to the gleaming Towers rising up in Pudong, 6,982 new four and five star hotel rooms are expected to arrive on the Shanghai market in 2007 and 2008, according to research from Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. These include offerings from all the major players in the hospitality industry, including a 680 room Renaissance and 631 room Hyatt regency.

Taking this competitive environment into account, it may seem a strange time for a completely new hospitality start-up to enter the market. However, explains Scott Barrack, Director, Space Development, the company behind this new hotel brand, "We have a completely different product." To understand the concepts and ideals behind URBN hotels, it is necessary to look first at the background of its developer. Having built a reputation refurbishing and rebuilding old residential and industrial properties in the French concession and other historical areas in Shanghai, Barrack found "There was a serious lack of creative, boutique hotels to put our guests in when they came to Shanghai."

Thus, the first step into hospitality came in the form of Inn Shanghai, serviced apartments in an old colonial villa created to cater for a clientele seeking a different Shanghai experience. "We got some really good feedback from that," explains Barrack, "and eventually one company took the whole property for three years." This prompted the search for a larger property to develop to capitalise on the market demand for such a unique offering. Having found a former 1970s factory turned post office right in the heart of the French concession, and after meeting with the architect, a new idea began to germinate. "We figured people would want to go out and explore," says Barrack, "and we thought that the serviced apartment concept of putting kitchens in the room would work against this idea in a way.

A hotel apart
Walking through the gated entrance and into the lobby, one of the first impressions to hit you is the marriage of old Shanghai with a clean, contemporary design aesthetic. The contrast between the layered stonework and the polished wooden floors is played off against the dominating feature, the patchwork wall behind the reception desk which is a montage of recycled leather suitcases. The sumptuous use of wood throughout the hotel grabs the eye, as does the brickwork corridors and bamboo exterior façade decoration. The decidedly untraditional guestrooms boast ample lounge areas, and Asian style sunken floors. Again the old and the new come to play, the contemporary retro-seventies feel offset by traditional touches such as old shanghai style lanterns.

"Our brief was to design a hotel that was proper to Shanghai, a memorable experience that was tuned into the locality and if that meant reinventing the wheel that's what needed to be done," explains Raefer Wallis, Architect, A00. In fact, the entire hotel experience was designed for the traveler who was interested in exploring the city and willing to move beyond the narrow confines of a standard five star hotel.

The starting point, Wallis continues, was the guest room itself. "Our whole premise was to make the whole design as personal as possible, to stay away from the cookie cutter approach. You go to any standard hotel room in the world and you have the washroom on the side, the bed in the middle and then a little table shoved in somewhere. If it's a boutique hotel it's exactly that again with better service and a few extra quirks."

Tailoring the hotel to fit the profile of the sophisticated guest that is the main target audience for the URBN brand, the developers wanted to offer more than just a bed and a shower. Instead, the in-room focus is placed not on the bed, but on a multi-purpose lounge area in which guests can hold business meetings, invite friends over or just chill out. "We had some key words we essentially started with," says Wallis, "an Asian sunken platform feel, having a dominant lounge, and just working with those basic lego blocks and trying a whole bunch of different layouts.".

Eco-boutique
Besides committing to a unique room format, the developers also made the conscious choice that their hotel would be the most environmentally friendly development possible. It was clear from the start, Wallis explains, "The question wasn't is it going to be a green hotel, the question was how far can we push it?"

The green element was present throughout the conception and development of the project. "We used some very basic techniques. We chose natural materials, locally sourced, and used as much recycled material as possible," Barrack reveals. Nearly all the wood which is endemic throughout the hotel has been salvaged from old demolished properties throughout Shanghai, and even the elevator is a refurbished piece from an older building.

Passive solar louvers on the front of the hotel consisting of bamboo threaded through stainless steel cables will become a green wall. Vines will thread through the structure from above and below, with the bamboo intended to rot out over a few years. A rooftop garden also occupies a quarter of the roof space, adding extra insulation and greenery and also offering guests another common area to relax in.

The entire building has been properly insulated, something both the developer and architect point it is often overlooked in China, as are the double glazed windows which have been installed. The air conditioning system is water cooled and divided into smaller units to allow for more efficient management. Low VOC paints were used, as were water-based varnishes wherever possible. "Going green doesn't necessarily have to mean being more expensive, it just means having to be a little bit smarter about what materials you use," says Barrack. By using natural, local materials, not only can the impact to the environment from transport be reduced, but costs can too.

Recognising that front of house and in-room lighting are energy guzzlers, a lot of time was dedicated to getting the most energy efficient lighting system possible. "We spent a month and half just testing the lighting in the room," reveals Wallis, "we were trying to figure out how to do a really cool, moody lighting with compact fluorescent lights. In the end we've got quite a good energy-saving lighting scheme throughout the hotel, with a combination of compact fluorescents and the lowest wattage incandescent bulbs we could get our hands on."

As any facility manager or building manager will point out, it doesn't matter how many fancy design touches are added during the construction phase of a project, if a building isn't managed properly it's performance won't be remotely environmentally friendly. "That's something we're trying to qualify right now," admits Barrack. "We're putting policies into practice that basically track the usage of energy and certain materials." He conceded that there is a learning process to go through, but is confident that with clientele, staff and management all committed to being as eco-friendly as possible, it is not an impossible task.

Barriers to green
While URBN is marketing itself as a green hotel, even offering guests an option of offset their stay with carbon credits, Barrack is honest in that this was only the first step of a steep learning curve. "It's really hard to find products or even decide how you qualify green. We didn't get too high tech, or use things such as solar panels; this is something we plan to do more in future, sourcing different green technologies that are made in China."

While using recycled materials does wonders for your carbon footprint, from a design and construction perspective achieving the fit-out finish required by a luxury hotel is not easy. "The question was just how to we make it look and feel luxurious and that was mainly done in the finishing and how it was put together. It would be impossible to pull off anywhere else because labour costs are so expensive," Wallis says. However, getting the message across to Shanghainese contractors was also a challenge. Wallis recalls occasions where site workers would question the sanity of using 'old' materials such as recycled wood instead of just buying new. With perseverance and a lot of hard work, the desired finished was achieved. As Barrack says: "It is very hard to get a high quality finish in China, that last five to ten percent is as much work as the first 90 percent."

Green by nature
"The whole concept of a green hotel," says Wallis, "is a bit of an oxymoron. A hotel is not something that's green, you build a building, put in huge infrastructure in terms of services, and then it gets used for six to eight hours a day. People walk in, sleep and leave." One of the key drivers for the project, he continues, was to make the space more usable. The rooms are specifically designed so that guests are comfortable working, entertaining and relaxing in the space. "The whole approach on making the hotel room more usable may not be an obvious one, but I think it's a very important one. Instead of using the room six hours a day it can be used it for 12, 14 even 24 hours if necessary," says Wallis.

Since its November 2007 launch URBN's flagship hotel has been well received and attracted international attention. Having shopped around fruitlessly to find a boutique hotel operator, the developers have had to start their own management company and are currently negotiating to open hotels in Beijing, Hangzhou, Dalian and Suzhou. Over the next ten years, Barrack expects to roll out 15 to 20 URBN boutique hotels, and the green angle will be a key aspect to this expansion. The work has only just begun it seems, as he affirms: "The next one will be leaps and bounds above what we've done now." RFP

"The question wasn't is it going to be a green hotel, the question was how far can we push it?"

List of Green Elements
. Extensive use of reclaimed Shanghai hardwoods and old Shanghai brick
. Renovation of existing structure and reuse of many of its elements
. Focus on using recycled and locally sourced materials
. Low wattage lighting throughout hotel
. Energy saving light settings for all rooms
. Passive solar shading
. 6 sqm of green space per hotel guest
. Green wall over south facade . Double pane windows
. Energy Efficient Water based AC system with heat recovery ventilatorsds

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