A veritable jungle spills from the balconies and openings of the new Atlas Hotel in Quảng Nam, Vietnam. A visual delight of lush greens juxtaposed against an earthy sandstone cladding gives the hotel the appearance of having an internal jungle, and is at once inviting and protective.The Atlas Hotel is located in Hoi An old town, the part of the city that has seen a rapid expansion in development and growth in tourism since it was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. This has led to a gradual loss of some of the old town’s characteristics, namely the tiled roofscape and internal courtyards which it was known for.
This is something that is recaptured in the hotel, which sits on an irregularly shaped plot. Architects and interior designers of Vo Trong Nghia Architects have used the unusual lines and angles of the site to their benefit to create a beautiful layered building, where the play between internal and external spaces is achieved by lifting the footprint of the hotel off the ground. This frees up the ground floor to create a series of interconnected courtyards around which the building sits, echoing the harmony and character of the old town.
The hotel’s 48 guest rooms also take advantage of the site’s layout, and are shorter and wider than regular hotel rooms. Deep balconies and planter boxes have been added to the front of the rooms and these have been filled with vegetation, which not only offers privacy by creating a visual buffer to the outside but also functions as natural ventilation and solar shading. It is also in keeping with an urban planning strategy to incorporate landscaping into the buildings themselves to improve and rejuvenate urban areas.
Infografic_Vietnam
According to TOPHOTELPROJECTS 58 hotel construction projects are currently in the pipeline in Vietnam with more than 16.500 rooms. Top three cities are Da Nang (10 projects), Ho Chi Minh City (8 projects) and Phu Quoc (8 Projects).