Holiday Inn Express

CLIENT

IHG

ARCHITECT

McAuliffe Stevens

CONTRACTOR

Naylor Love

LOCATION

Queenstown

Holiday Inn Express - Location

BRIEF

The vision for the building was to create an abstract of a glacier which would have once carved a path through the valley. The advancing glacier would pick up rock and debris, the ice eating it and holding it in its frozen underbelly. The eventual retreat would reveal this debris, called 'glacial erratic', to form a new landscape. The hotel was to show that journey and the erratic within the facade design. 

Holiday Inn Express Queenstown | Insol Ltd

 

 

KEY CHALLENGES

At the centre of the story being told within the design, is the glacier. The abstract nature defies conventional lines and presented numerous challenges. Multiple planes and angles were to be joined from an imaginary centre point, all surrounded by tight tolerance margins. It made for a challenging construction methodology, with even the sills having a change of plane, the abstract design calling for an imaginative, solution focused approach. 

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OUR APPROACH

Custom perforated panels, featuring different sized vertical slots, were manufactured and powder coated. The design was such that the pattern was not to repeat, the visual distribution of those vertical slots to appear as random as the erratic deposited by the retreating glacier. Every panel required a different position for the pattern. Those panels had to be individually site measured. The angles present in the design, with jutting points and subtle changes of width, required incredible attention to detail and the ability to adapt the installation in order to maintain architectural intent. 

 

 

RESULT

Set against a backdrop of man-made structures and the natural environment, the Holiday Inn Express in Queenstown is a bewitching visual blend of both. At the same time as telling the story of the geological history of the area, it represents the advance of the adventure capital of the world. This ability to be both sympathetic to the environment whilst dynamically showcasing modernity, makes for a compelling presence that stands apart from the other hotels in the area and announces the arrival of the Holiday Inn Express brand in New Zealand. 

HolidayInnQT_29

 

BRIEF

The vision for the building was to create an abstract of a glacier which would have once carved a path through the valley. The advancing glacier would pick up rock and debris, the ice eating it and holding it in its frozen underbelly. The eventual retreat would reveal this debris, called 'glacial erratic', to form a new landscape. The hotel was to show that journey and the erratic within the façade design

KEY CHALLENGES

At the centre of the story being told within the design, is the glacier. The abstract nature defies conventional lines and presented numerous challenges. Multiple planes and angles were to be joined from an imaginary centre point, all surrounded by tight tolerance margins. It made for a challenging construction methodology, with even the sills having a change of plane, the abstract design calling for an imaginative, solution focused approach. 

OUR APPROACH

Custom perforated panels, featuring different sized vertical slots, were manufactured and powder coated. The design was such that the pattern was not to repeat, the visual distribution of those vertical slots to appear as random as the erratic deposited by the retreating glacier. Every panel required a different position for the pattern. Those panels had to be individually site measured. The angles present in the design, with jutting points and subtle changes of width, required incredible attention to detail and the ability to adapt the installation in order to maintain architectural intent. 

RESULT

Set against a backdrop of man-made structures and the natural environment, the Holiday Inn Express in Queenstown is a bewitching visual blend of both. At the same time as telling the story of the geological history of the area, it represents the advance of the adventure capital of the world. This ability to be both sympathetic to the environment whilst dynamically showcasing modernity, makes for a compelling presence that stands apart from the other hotels in the area and announces the arrival of the Holiday Inn Express brand in New Zealand.