Shangri-La KUNMING
W
ith its mild climate and perpetual sense of bloom, Kunming is known as the City of Eternal Spring, while the wider province of Yunnan is shaped by millennia-
old traditions surrounding Pu-erh tea. It is here that ShangriLa has opened its latest hotel, blending its signature Asian
Drawing on Yunnan’s landscapes, culture and tea traditions, AvroKO crafts a refined retreat shaped by the spirit of an imaginary mansion.
hospitality with a contemporary interpretation of the province’s rich cultural heritage. Envisioned by AvroKO as an ‘Inspired Mansion of a Yunnan Tea Plantation’, the interiors take guests on an immersive journey through a fictional mansion, drawing on the region’s landscapes and rituals. “The mansion concept gave us both a structural logic and an emotional framework,” explains William Harris, founder and Partner at AvroKO. “It
Words: Eleanor Howard • Photography: © Owen Raggett
allowed us to assign each part of the hotel its own role in the life of an imagined Yunnan estate, from the arrival garden to the private suites, without any of those spaces feeling disconnected from the whole. Each space tells a different chapter, but they all belong to the same story.”
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