Kimpton Aqeos Hainan transforms an abandoned coastal hotel shell in Clear Water Bay, Hainan, into a climate-attuned resort whose public interiors operate as a porous landscape. The project recalibrates circulation and hierarchy around a triangulated atrium framework, integrates water and planting as spatial mediators, and leverages daylight and natural ventilation to align interior life with the rhythms of the tropical shoreline.
Kimpton Aqeos Hainan Technical Information
- Architects: YANG & Associates Group; YOSAAN by YANG
- Location: No. 3 Haisi Road, Lingshui Li Autonomous County, Hainan Province, China
- Gross Area: 61,000 m2 | 656,600 Sq. Ft.
- Completion Year: 2025
- Photographs: © Wang Ting
By opening the atrium to light and air and treating it as a tempered volume, we allow climate to structure circulation and social life. Water, planting, and a legible geometric order tune large hospitality spaces to the slow pace of the coast.
– YANG & Associates Group
Coastal Context and Ecological Response
Set along Clear Water Bay, the project engages a coastline where rainforest, dune, and reef ecologies remain comparatively intact. Rather than isolating the building from this setting, the interiors adopt elements typical of the coastal edge. Shallow-water planes, planted basins, and shaded perches migrate indoors, softening thresholds and extending the sensory cues of the shoreline. This approach reduces the sharp contrast between conditioned interiors and the outdoor climate, promoting transitional spaces where humidity, fragrance, and reflected light are part of the experience.
Public spaces are paced to slow movement and promote observation. Seating clusters and meandering paths align with axial glimpses to the ocean and with prevailing breezes that slip through the atrium and terraces. The plan resists linear procession in favor of lateral wandering, with framed views calibrated to horizon, canopy, and water surfaces. The result is a series of calibrated pauses that acknowledge the site’s sonic and atmospheric character, using the coast not as backdrop but as a shaping agent for interior rhythm.
Adaptive Reuse and Spatial Recalibration
The project began with a dormant hotel structure characterized by low floor-to-floor heights, limited daylight, and blocked sightlines. The design response avoided heavy demolition and instead reorganized the existing shell through a combined architectural and interior strategy that clarifies hierarchy and circulation. Key moves carve out strategic voids to relieve compression, open lateral connections between programs, and align principal routes with sources of light and air.
A new triangular grid articulates the atrium, establishing a clear geometric order without imposing rigid enclosure. The triangulation establishes legible wayfinding axes while allowing generous interstitial voids for art, planting, and water features. This framework supports layered sightlines across multiple levels and creates platforms for different occupancy patterns, from brief pauses to more extended stays. The grid operates as both ceiling and spatial register, coordinating lighting, structure, and movement while retaining flexibility for program shifts over time.
Public Interiors as Social Landscape
The conventional hotel lobby is reframed as an Art Atrium, Living Room, and Leisure Balcony. A central hearth anchors the ground level, while curvilinear assemblies distribute seating and circulation in overlapping fields rather than discrete rooms. This geometry supports informal gathering, mixed durations of stay, and multiple orientations to light, water, and activity. Furniture and fixtures avoid rigid alignment, easing transitions between solitary occupancy and collective use.
Seven infinity water features, curated artworks, and tropical planting serve as porous dividers, creating micro-places without doors or thresholds. These elements temper acoustics, introduce reflectivity and shade, and encourage lingering in the vicinity of movement. A diversified program, including all-day dining, Chinese and Japanese restaurants, two bars, a games chamber, screening, and e-sports spaces, is differentiated by scale and light quality yet connected by consistent material expression. Carefully designed grey spaces between destinations sustain a sense of discovery, using shifts in ceiling height, floor texture, and ambient illumination to cue transitions rather than signage.
Passive Environmental Strategy and Climate Tuning
Daylight is drawn deep into the plan through new skylights above the entry canopy and the atrium. The triangulated roof system modulates aperture sizes to manage glare while preserving sky exposure, improving legibility, and reducing reliance on artificial lighting during daytime hours. Light wells and reflective water surfaces further distribute luminance to lower levels, ensuring that circulation areas are not dependent on overhead fixtures.
Converting the atrium into a non-temperature-controlled volume leverages the island’s prevailing breezes and stack effect for natural ventilation. The atrium functions as a tempered buffer, reducing HVAC loads in adjacent spaces and allowing diurnal temperature variations to be felt rather than erased. Interior water and planting contribute to evaporative cooling and sensory comfort, while also extending continuity with the coastal landscape. Materials that tolerate humidity and salt-laden air, paired with shaded edges and breathable partitions, support durability and reduce maintenance without compromising spatial porosity.
About YANG & Associates Group
Founded in 1997 and based in Shenzhen, YANG & Associates Group is a globally recognized design studio specializing in high-end hospitality and commercial projects. With a focus on human-centered design, the firm integrates architecture, interior, FF&E, and art into cohesive solutions that reflect cultural narratives and environmental contexts. Their work emphasizes spatial experience, sustainability, and innovation, positioning them at the forefront of contemporary resort and luxury design in Asia and beyond.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Hainan Zhenbo Property Co., Ltd.
- Architectural Renovation: YOSAAN by YANG
- Interior Design: YANG & Associates Group
- FF&E Design: MSA by YANG
- FF&E Installation: MSA by YANG
- Art Design & Installation: Hong Kong DCA + INWOO ART CONSULTING by YANG + 57ART
- Project Photography: Wang Ting
