For Tony Chi, “Hospitality”is the core of his passion to study and think, and it is also the most profound part of his design pathway that inspires him. In February this year, we were very honored to invite Mr. Ji to open an online class for us, with "Hospitality" as the core of the course, combined with Mr. Ji's explanation of a series of design projects, to systematically understand how this concept has guided Mr. Ji all the way to the present...

“Hospitality”,In Latin it means a visitor, especially a stranger. In China, the meaning is to entertain, which means to give guests the best experience, the best food and to feel the host's most enthusiastic emotions. Ultimately, the goal is to show passion in its purest form. Mr. Chi defines the two main meanings of "hospitality" in the course, which constitute the two main parts of this. One is artistic(perceptual), corresponding to the soul behind Mr. Chi's design, and the other is scientific（rational）, showing the specific methods in design.

First of all, in terms of artistic（perceptual）, the "hospitality" actually needs the pure love and enthusiasm from the heart, but it is also worth mentioning here that deliberate is also its basis, and it needs to be harmonious with the natural moments that occur in daily life like home. In Mr. Chi's view, hospitality is a tradition, an experience, a practice and an art form. It is inherent in each person, expressed whenever and wherever human interaction occurs, and where there is human communication there is hospitality, which is not limited to a particular time or place.

And the hospitality between people will make us hear the sound of space and architecture. If we say that changing the "relationship between people" to "relationship between people and natural environment”, in fact, nature also has its own way of hospitality for human beings, and man-made buildings and Spaces will also have, one is whispering in your ear, and the other is more publicized and noisy.

And Mr. Chi's thinking that the soul behind the design of "hospitality" is derived from the "hospitality" of nature and human beings happens to be the basis for motivating him to enter the hospitality design, preserving the things necessary for People's Daily life, just like the breeze in nature that careens your cheek, and the hospitality experience that can gently and slowly penetrate your heart is the core meaning of hospitality design.

In terms of scientific rationality, Mr. Chi sharply proposed in the course how to design from the inside out, how to combine from the outside in, and only with interaction can there be a design of hospitality. In the design, the architectural thinking logic is used to rectify the space and the relationship between various functions of the space. Every time you start thinking about building a design, the core is the project itself, but it is surrounded by functional places that generate money. Because the smooth operation of the money-generating place can make the whole hotel project have the ability to survive. The space with money-generating function requires more corresponding teams and consultants to support. At the same time, the design technique itself is just a gesture, which is the result of thinking about the needs of the users. Use aesthetics and architectural design techniques to combine a person and a product.

For Mr. Chi, artistic sensibility is the part he loves and the soul that inspires design. The aspect of scientific rationality is a body that he has been guided by the spiritual soul to construct. Design is how to combine from the outside in at the same time, that is, to combine the body and the mind, which is also a topic that the students participating in this course can gain the most.

Rosewood Hotel case study

Rosewood Hotel is a special brand for Mr. Chi. Through the case analysis of Rosewood Hotel, he conveyed to us that in his opinion, the concept of "hospitality" is more complex and hierarchical for hotel design. At the same time, he showed us how he designed a hotel. And how a hotel brand culture can be built from scratch.

To build a brand is to think about the source of the brand, Rosewood Hotel was formerly a small family brand in Europe, after the Hong Kong Zheng family bought the hotel itself has injected a new soul. At this time, designers also need a core value of their own, that is, Mr. Chi has always advocated that "design does not have to be seen" and "pay attention to the mood of the space" is more important than the material itself. What matters is which materials will stand the test of time. How can the material itself be combined with the local cultural environment and the inner climate of people? In order to combine the core values of the hotel brand itself, it can be achieved to design the historical inheritance of the hotel and the kind of tradition passed down from generation to generation

After 12 years of exploration, Mr. Chi and the client finally laid the brand value of Rosewood Hotel, which only does the city and the resort. The city hotel is presented in the form of mansion, and the resort hotel is presented in the form of manor. The hotel is built once, and the internal emotional value of its space is created according to the different cities.