Colors emerging from the mist
The Mist Hot Spring Hotel, Xuchang, Henan, China

The wonders of natural hot spring steam coupled with softly colored architectural glass create a mystical experience for guests at The Mist Hot Spring Resort in Xuchang, located 100 km from Zhengzhou, the capital of China’s Henan province. Stunning in its simplicity, the mesmerizing play between steam and Vanceva color interlayers put The Mist Hot Spring Resort on the list of honorable mentions in the 2022 Vanceva World of Color Awards™.

The long, cold winter months in Xuchang can be gloomy; thus, the use of glass became the most important material in this building’s design. It attracts tourists and provides a unique experience for guests.

Department of Architecture, a leading design firm in Thailand, created a design that would bring out the natural beauty of the region. The design team was led by Amata Luphaiboon and Twitee Vajrabhaya Teparkum, whose inspiration for the design came from early filmmaking colorization techniques. Film frames were hand-tinted in layers frame by frame and projected through light. The film was then projected through the air and filtered, intermixed, and superimposed with colors into moving visuals.

The idea of dyeing the space with colorized light onto a monotone surface was adopted into architectural language. The hotel’s gray granite facade is doubled with a three-dimensional lattice structure inspired by Chinese bamboo scaffolding. The lattice is filled with varying stacks of Vanceva color interlayers of Coral Rose, Ruby Red, Aquamarine, Sapphire, and Marine Blue Green to produce a variety of blue and magenta tones, which represent the color of the winter sky.

The glass exterior of the double facade helps blend guest balconies into a single architectural element. The abundance of colors against the dark background and the rising steam from the natural spring create a dimensional look that also ensures privacy. Interior surfaces have a monochromatic color scheme that lets sunlight filtering through the glass be the star of the show.

The color laminated glass was processed by BSG Glass Thai Techno Glass, a leading manufacturer of processed glass for interior and exterior use in the Asia Pacific.

WOCA juror Joe Jacoby described the design: “Brilliant mixture of colors. Especially love the floating cubes and how they reflect from the surrounding water. The mist surrounding makes these feel like a fantastical wonderland.”

Fellow juror Monika Kumor concurred, saying, “The color pallet selected for the hotel facade artfully complements its natural settings and winter season. The layering of the soft color, mist, and water makes the images almost magical.”