Ole Scheeren Designs Regent Sanya Haitang Bay
China Duty Free Group and IHG chose Büro Ole Scheeren for a stacked beachfront resort in Hainan combining the Regent and Hotel Indigo brands.
IHG Hotels & Resorts and China Duty Free Group announced on 20 December 2021 a dual-branded resort on Haitang Bay in Sanya, pairing a Regent with a Hotel Indigo. The project marks the Regent brand’s arrival on Hainan Island, with both hotels planned to open in 2026.
At signing, Regent Sanya Haitang Bay was planned with 317 rooms across five room types, including ten private villas, and Hotel Indigo Sanya Haitang Bay with 175 rooms, for 492 keys in total. The site sits next to the Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex.
The architect is Ole Scheeren, whose Büro Ole Scheeren won the competition in May 2020 and was commissioned in April 2021. IHG described the scheme as a “vertical oasis” of floating boxes, rippled curtain walls and hanging gardens, designed for unobstructed sea views.
The practice’s project page, under the name Sanya Horizons, gives more detail. The two hotels are stacked into a structure up to 160 metres high to keep the ground free for beachfront green space, with vertical gardens on every floor, a 75-metre-high opening called the Horizons Window and a 153-metre infinity pool cantilevered towards the ocean. A deep hexagonal façade grid is designed to cut solar gain and wind loads, and single-loaded corridors allow rooms to be cross-ventilated.
Büro Ole Scheeren lists a gross floor area of 67,300 square metres on a 108,800-square-metre site, with construction starting in July 2022 and completion scheduled for July 2026. Its figures put the Regent at 326 keys and the Hotel Indigo at 176. Renderings are published on the Büro Ole Scheeren website.