Le Méridien Zhengzhou

Le Meridien Zhengzhou is a luxury hotel in the centre of Zhengzhou, originally designed by Neri & Hu with completed interiors and landscape in 2013; in 2019 Shma was invited to redesign the roughly 6,000-square-metre exterior landscape of the existing property. Because of the site's special constraints, the project deliberately pursued a sculptural, primarily visual landscape rather than a functional garden. Drawing on Zhengzhou's history as a cotton-textile manufacturing city, Shma abstracted the weave and texture of the textile industry into the paving and landform, while negotiating hard existing conditions such as subway ventilation shafts and sunken metro slabs. Within the tight site, the studio produced a highly textured, sculptural landscape that activated the previously lacklustre forecourt of the long-operating hotel, lighting up the whole Le Meridien property and establishing a new local landmark for Zhengzhou. The renovation also required Shma to resolve numerous on-site problems during construction, coordinating closely with contractors so that the woven-texture concept could be realised within the constraints of an occupied hotel. The result is a frontage demonstration landscape that reads as an urban art piece from the street while quietly solving the practical requirements of a working hotel entrance. Project details are limited in the source material.