PLaT Architects have created this seriously amazing, geometric hotel design located in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia.
The Xiangshawan Desert Lotus Hotel is set in this dramatic desolate landscape that changes from rolling, golden sand dunes in summer, to icy snow-covered peaks in the winter. Not one for the faint hearted, this holiday location is more suited to the adventure seeker and those wishing to experience the wonders of mother nature, including blizzards and sandstorms!! When the weather is clear, the resort offers unique activities such as camel rides, desert surfing and sand skiing.
The hotel is a visually spectacular arrangement of white sails which cover, and protect, the underlying hotel and its guests. It appears like a mirage, rising from the dunes and becoming one with them as the sand fills the lobby floor. Due to the ever shifting grounds it is built on, PLaT architects needed to invent a unique structural system to anchor the hotel and allow flexibility to deal with the elements. A huge part of the design process was the consideration of how to utilise solar, water and wind energy to run the hotel in an environmentally friendly, self-sufficient way.
I think this hotel is definitely one for the bucket list.







