Sunrise Kempinski Hotel

Solar and celestial iconography is really having a moment in the Gulf region, and more recently, such symbolic structures are rising in China. These iconographic buildings are meant to engage with the context around them and win the hearts and minds of the general public, who are sometimes stakeholders in the commissioning and approval process of the designs. Often they derive from local symbolic imagery, such as native plants or animals, or religious emblems.

This latest hotel in China, however, takes this phenomenon one step further. Beijing's Sunrise Kempinski Hotel by Shanghai Huadu Architect Design Co. is made to look like a rising sun, the symbol of China's quickly ascendant economy. This nationalist pride is manifest in many of their buildings, but this one also has a formal kick. The circular shape makes the building interact with the horizon, becoming part of a beautiful landscape painting.

The round 318-foot-high luxury hotel has 21 stories with 306 guest rooms and suites, and it took 9,300 construction workers two years to build. Emblematic of China's suburbanizing landscape, the hotel stands on the shore of Yanqi Lake, on the outskirts of Beijing. The facade contains 10,000 glass panels, lit up at night by hydroelectric-powered LED lights. The huge complex contains 14 restaurants and bars, two spas, a private marina, pagoda, recreational and fitness facilities, and a "kids club."

The team consulted with many parties about how to make it a beacon of Chinese culture on the international stage. Its entrance is shaped like the mouth of a fish, which in China represents prosperity, and its profile is of a scallop, the symbol of fortune. Kempinski Hotel joins MAD's horseshoe shaped Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort in the most recent iterations of Chinese iconography.