Wallpaper 4

Dark towers

Piero Lissoni delivers a broodingly handsome

hangout with The Middle House in Shanghai

PHOTOGRAPHY: ALGIRDAS BAKAS WRITER: DAVEN WU

With great stealth and style, Hong Kong’s Swire Hotels

has been expanding its House Collective brand through

Asia. Its latest project, The Middle House, has just

opened in Shanghai and is a seductive addition to the

family. The hotel’s location, in the RMB17bn mixed-use

development HKRI Taikoo Hui, is flawless, while

the immediate neighbourhood, Dazhongli, holds some

of the city’s last remaining historic shikumen, or lane

houses, around which rear up the towering skyscrapers

of the Jing’an financial district.

Divided between two 14-storey towers clad in a

striated façade of aluminium louvres are 111 rooms and

102 serviced apartments with interiors by Piero Lissoni.

Channelling his customary love for muted hues and

Checking In