Honeycombs

Ordos by EXH Design

Sometimes a building is so otherworldly time comes to a standstill and petty preoccupations vanish into thin air.

EXH Design, a cross-cultural studio in Shanghai, has done just that with Ordos, a prototype of a boutique hotel in Inner Mongolia. According to the firm, the architects took inspiration from the yurt, a traditional Mongolian dwelling. Yurts are round and unconventional spaces by today's standards, but they are also reminders of a culturally rich Central Asian past. Once inside you encounter the kind of sleek minimalism found in many of the world's other metropolises.





The Ordos region, interestingly enough, is also an oasis of China's green programs. There are plans underway for a 12-gigawatt wind, solar and biomass plant, the world's largest, as well as a tree-planting movement in what is one of China's most massive deserts.

China's emergence then, it appears, is not just about industrial might. It's also about the rising conscience of a nation that understands the potential of the future and the power of now.