The Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland, or Songjiang Quarry Hotel, is a unique hotel that started operations on 20 November 2018 in Songjiang, Shanghai, China, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the city center. Managed by InterContinental, the hotel has been built on an abandoned quarry site and features some rooms underwater.
The Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland is the world’s first quarry hotel.
Architect Martin Jochman created the concept for the quarry hotel while working for Atkins and it won a competition in 2006. He later established his studio Jade + QA, where he carried on the design. “The concept for the building was inspired by the quarry itself and by its natural environment needing to be finely balanced with the new development following the using the Tao principles of yin yang,” Jochman told Dezeen.
The 337-room hotel descends 16 storeys below ground level within the former quarry and is described by the studio as a ground scraper
”The Songjiang Quarry Hotel may become just about the greenest hotel ever made”
Not only does the hotel possess a structure known for being a “fight against gravity”, but it is also notable for being environmentally responsible. It generates its own power using geothermal and solar energy.”By building the hotel where it is, designers and developers hope to prevent further damage to the ecological environment around it. The Songjiang Quarry Hotel may become just about the greenest hotel ever made,” said Atkins Global about the £345-million hotel.
Internally, passive sustainable features take advantage of the scheme’s orientation, low profile, grass roof, and thermal properties of the quarry rock mass and lake, thus creating a unique microclimate that provides summer cooling and winter heating. As such, the scheme offers an intriguing example of the potential uses for brownfield sites worldwide.
