Beijing Fresh Hotel

Fresh Hotel sits in central Beijing, at the corner of Galaxy SOHO on the East Second Ring Road in Dongcheng. The low-budget hotel adjoins Fresh Hutong in a large traditional siheyuan hutong district, though most hutong entrances are now hidden behind new commercial buildings. Across Beijing, the rich culture and vivid lifestyle of hutongs have largely been replaced by high-yield, uniform real estate. In Fresh Hotel, the design tries to weave hutong atmosphere and history into the project. The client liked the idea of focusing on the surrounding community's traditional forms and materials; like every young entrepreneur, he set a low budget, and he had long loved Beijing's hutong areas. He knocked on the office door in late 2016 wanting to revive a former traditional guesthouse, and wrote 4,000 words describing his vision, history and the area's rich culture, which made a deep impression and started the project; the result is a modest, warm hotel.