A new hotel designed by Margot Krasojevic will look to improve both China’s and the hotel industry’s outlooks on energy usage by harnessing tidal energy and reimagining what a hotel’s ethos on power is for both user and operator.

“I have designed an alternative sustainable holiday experience. Studies have been published showing people are willing to forego excessive energy consumption experiences in order to support sustainable leisure breaks,” Krasojevic told CLAD. “If travellers can embrace this type of holiday experience, even if it is initially viewed as just a trend, then we are making progress.”

Krasojevic’s concept indeed crashes against the tide of much conventional hotel design. Located on Yalong Bay, on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea, the Harmonic Turbine Tidal Hotel will sport a design to “reflect wave-like formations”, a surface for “waves to crash against by creating more dynamic movement” and “wave interference in order for the building to sway in the tide”, according to the architect.

She is aiming for 25-45 per cent of the hotel itself to be submerged in water, depending on tides. It will house revolving water turbines that will be partially buried in the sand, responding to tidal waves to generate electricity to power its 30 en-suite spa bedrooms, a lobby and other areas.

The hotel will contain two interlocking steel frame aluminium clad elements, which will gently sway with the tide. It will be pinned into the sand using partly exposed open foundations which will spiral into the substructure, turning slightly with the tide, thus helping to harness its renewable energy sources more efficiently.

Krasojevic is looking to change the way people think about their vacations and the way hoteliers think about their buildings in general with the hotel. She said: “Hotel guests’ demands and habits might start to change after experiencing this new hotel typology and make the eco-conservation and renewable energy hotel the standard, rather than the exception.”

Every element of the hotel’s design has taken the seascape around it into account. Krasojevic said of this process: “I simulated the formations using dynamic animation modelling, and this has allowed me to understand tidal waves and how they interact with the coastline and the formal studies for this building. It isn't an arbitrary shape, it is a direct response to the environment and the site, which is very windy and high energy.”

The Harmonic Turbine Tidal hotel is slotted for a February 2020 completion date.