Gary Bowerman takes a tour of China's most talked about design hotel
This will blow your mind,' beams Yves Wencker, general manager of Commune by the Great Wall, as he scampers up a sloping horseshoe-shaped walkway constructed from matchbox-sized pieces of Mongolian black slate. It is the second time in 10 minutes he has uttered this phrase and, on this occasion - as we enter Gary Chang's James Bond-esque, wooden Suitcase House, which effortlessly levitates above the terrain - I have to agree with his sentiment. Wencker only joined Commune - an eclectic spread of 11 ultra high-concept villas and a clubhouse, which collectively form China's most talked-about design hotel - in mid-August, but his energy, self-effacing manner and encyclopaedic memory render him a charming, if slightly high-octane, guide. He calls it his Off the Wall project, a metaphor that encapsulates both the innate humour and esoteric seriousness that define Commune, located in the hills 70km north-west of Beijing. The name, after all, can be both a play on la Commune de Paris and China's ruling political ideology.
As I breathlessly keep pace, we find ourselves atop Venezuelan architect Antonio Ochoa's Cantilever House - a dreamily imagined, three-storey red brick conceit that caresses the sloping terrain and is draped with enough crushed velvet furnishings and glass viewing space to sate the most luxurious of tastes.
On the wooden roof deck, which is large enough for David Beckham to practise free kicks, Wencker simply points and smiles. The hills of the cavernous Shuiguan Valley meander across a pixel-perfect azure sky; the Great Wall of China hugging its coruscating curves. The view is sensational. 'At sunrise today, I had a group of executives from a biotech firm on this deck taking a t'ai chi class,' says Wencker. 'Just imagine how spectacular that was.'
But he is not finished there. 'Down there is my favourite location for evening cocktails,' he says, pointing at the triangular, layered concrete piazza that faces, like a compass dial, directly towards the Great Wall. 'It also serves a second purpose,' he adds. 'It covers over our water tanks.'
Envisaged by the darlings of China's booming property industry, husband-and-wife developers Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi, and executed by 12 of Asia's hottest architects, Commune is essentially a museum of modern Asian architecture. From a total budget of $24m, the hand-picked architects - including Hong Kong's Gary Chang, Japan's Kengo Kuma, China's Cui Kai and Singapore's Kay Ngee Tan - were each given $1m to create their own fantasy home. The one condition was that only Chinese construction materials could be used. Furnishings from designers of the calibre of Serge Mouille, Claudio Colucci, and Philippe Starck were then used to dress the interiors.
The result is, as Ricky Burdett, director of city planning studies at the London School of Economics wrote in the architectural journal, Domus, in 2003, 'an intriguing collection of structures that provides a cross-section of the expressive potential of contemporary architecture at a time of unprecedented social change in Asia's fastest growing economy.'
As validation for its boldness, Commune was awarded a special prize at the 2002 la Biennale di Venezia, the first ever recognition for Chinese architecture at the famed festival.
Though essentially a hotel, Commune has operated largely in the corporate realm since opening in 2002. 'It works very well as a Mice product,' Wencker says.
Proof of his statement can be found in the fact that Japanese firm Sharp has filmed a lavish television advert inside Kengo Kuma's serene Bamboo House, complete with internal lake and moveable bamboo walls, and BMW launched its 7 Series on the marble patio of Shigeru Ban's Furniture House. Olay recently hosted a lavish launch with Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung and, on the day of my visit, Siemens had bussed in 200 staff for Saturday lunch on top of the boarded-up hotel swimming pool.
Yet, although Commune continues to wow Beijing's business high-flyers and magnetise designers and architects from across the world, its positioning in China's booming tourism industry remains unclear. It also received some recent UK press criticism regarding various aspects of villa maintenance. This may explain why international hotel operator Kempinski was recently contracted to take over the management in August 2005. 'We need to work on the positioning, marketing and branding of what we have here, and reach a wider audience,' Wencker says. 'My work has taken me several times around the world, but I have never seen a concept as mind-blowing as this. The creative combinations we can provide are infinite.'
Wencker has clearly defined goals for Commune. 'We are working on the business plan into 2007,' he says. 'The potential is enormous. We can do so much more than a city hotel, where it is check-in, check-out; business in, business out. But we must work with the evolution and vision of this project. It must be high quality. If we allow it to operate just based on a fashion trend, it will wither.'
The second phase of Commune is already under construction, due for completion in June 2006. The designs of four existing villas, Cantilever House, Bamboo House, Forest House and Shared House, will be replicated and enlarged and a total of 21 new villas will be created. A spa 'by a famous brand name' will be added, as will a dedicated children's villa, enabling parents to head off and enjoy Commune's private hiking trails along wild, unreconstructed sections of the Great Wall. An additional phase three is also planned.
Before leaving, I take a second look at the rusted Clubhouse entrance. The Corten steel beams have been deliberately left to rust and symbolise, I'm told, 'the legacy of civilisation in nature'. As a design statement, it is certainly more powerful when you leave than arrive. A Norwegian visitor joins me, seemingly having misplaced his architect wife. 'I think she's over there somewhere,' he smiles, gesturing in the general direction of Cantilever House. 'She's totally transfixed by this place.'
