November 23, 2018

Hong Kong celebrities, a daring helicopter landing, Ming Dynasty paintings, and a Russian rock band playing ‘Beat It’... Shimao & InterContinental throw one hell of a party!!!

BAM is pleased to announce completion of the InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland. The project is the world’s first hotel descending into a quarry and an iconic example of the architecture working with the landscape. BAM has worked on the project for five years as the landscape architect.

The hotel is located in an abandoned 1950’s andesite quarry in the Songjiang District. Andesite takes its name from a type of viscous lava flow that forms thick drifts and dome shapes. The rock walls of the quarry reveal a geological history, an ancient drift of lava.

Interestingly the native andesite stone formations of the quarry and of the nearby Tianma Mountain are home to a Chinese landscape painting style known as the Songjiang School. Formed in the Late Ming Period of 1567-1644, the Songjiang School of painting created a foundation for the later Shanghai School. One could argue the native stone formations inspired the landscape paintings.

For the landscape design of this project BAM was immediately inspired by the natural power of the quarry space. ‘We hope to fill this quarry with a raging techno party one day’remarked Jake Walker after one site visit.  Little did Walker know he would have to wait another 5 years for that party to take place.