The Awards for Hospitality Experience and Design (AHEAD) revealed its Asia 2019 winners last week at the Andaz Hotel in Singapore. The night’s three big winners were all located in China.  

Tsingpu Yangzhou Retreat and The Middle House Shanghai took home two awards each while late architect Kerry Hill‘s Amanyangyun Shanghai took home the most accolades at four awards, including the night’s highest honour, the AHEAD Asia Hotel of the Year Award. 

“Our winners offered a reflection of the region’s rich cultural history and dynamic modernity,” said AHEAD Awards founder Matt Turner. “We were particularly honoured to acknowledge the legacy of architect Kerry Hill who passed away in 2018 with several awards for his final project – Amanyangyun Shanghai.”

Amanyangyun Shanghai

Receiving the awards on behalf of Kerry Hill Architects (together with client representatives from Shanghai Guyin Real Estate and Aman Group) was Senior Interior Designer Isabelle Vergnaud.

In addition to the top accolade Hotel of the Year, Amanyangyun also took home the awards for categories  ‘Visual Identity’, ‘Guestrooms’, and ‘Hotel Conversion’ categories (presented by Indesign Media’s Narelle Yabuka). 

Amanyangyun was praised by the AHEAD Asia 2019 jury for its minimalism, which is “pushed to the extreme” and for its “brilliant hard-fought efforts to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of a province.

Tsingpu Yangzhou Retreat

Designed by Neri&Hu, the 20-room boutique hotel Tsingpu Yangzhou Retreat won the ‘Landscaping & Outdoor Spaces’ for its compelling labyrinthine landscape inspired by the courtyard house typology of vernacular Chinese architecture.

Lyndon Neri accepting the award

It also took the gold in ‘The New Concept of the Year Award’ for its sophisticated and sensitive adaptive reuse of pre-existing buildings in the ancient city of Yangzhou. 

The Middle House entrance

Designed by Italian maestro Piero Lissoni, The Middle House‘s striking interior took home the awards for categories ‘Lobby & Public Spaces’ and ‘Spa & Wellness’ for its seductive lobby dressed with Venetian chandelier and glossy green tiles, and its sultry underground spa, respectively. 

The Middle House Spa

The awards honoured Bali-based architect and designer Bill Bensley with The Outstanding Contribution Award for his “extensive efforts in nature, conservation and sustainability” and his oeuvre which is best described with Indonesian phrase lebih gila, lebih baik – the crazier, the better. 

Bill Bensley at the gala

Hong Kong-based design studio AB Concept was also a big winner with two accolades awarded for two projects in the same hotel project: Bar Trigona (‘Bar, Club or Lounge’ category) and the Yun House (‘Restaurant’ category) both located at Four Seasons Kuala Lumpur.  

Yun House

Other winners included BAR Studio’s Rosewood Phnom Penh (‘Hotel Newbuild’ category), AvroKO’s Eaton Hong Kong (‘Hotel Renovation & Restoration’ category), Bo Reudler Studio‘s Wild Coast Tented Lodge in Yala, Sri Lanka (‘Resort Hotel’category). 

Wild Coast Tented Lodge in Yala, Sri Lanka

AHEAD 2019 introduced a new category – ‘Transport’, which honours exceptional design and experience of mobile forms of hospitality such as cruise ships, sleeper trains and riverboats. The inaugural winner of the category is Guntû, a 38-guest floating hotel in Japan’s Seto Inland sea designed by Yasushi Horibe Architects & Associates. 

Westin Perth Presidential Suite

Two Australian projects, both located in Perth, took home the awards: BAR Studio’s Presidential Suite at the Westin Perth (‘Suite’ category) and EDG Design‘s InterContinental Perth City Centre (‘Event Spaces’) category. 

View more images from the gala night in the gallery below!

All images courtesy of AHEAD Asia.