The design of the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake started in 2004. Embracing the western bank, the site is located at the cultural village of Jinsha Harbour on Lingyin Road and covered by rich greenery and water system. On the near side, there is one of the top ten sceneries of the West Lake “the Breeze at Crooked Courtyard” with beautiful water features. On the far side, the south mountains are right across the lake.

The space design of the hotel borrows the traditional Jiangnan garden style but is not limited by it. We add new landscape in an effort to enrich the existing "picturesque" artistic conception. We start with discovering and extending landscape elements in the overall planning and derive the framework of the design concept which is about the relationships between the building complex and the courtyard spaces.

The entrance courtyard, lobby, swimming pool, waterfall, lake, hotel villas and mountains are the ordered elements on the main landscape axis. The lobby, as the vital part of the hotel, sits at the start point. Its two wings are the guest rooms with courtyards which are integrated in between to create different space rhythm. Restaurants and banquet hall are spread out along inner side of the lake on the east side. The Chinese restaurant and private dining rooms are connected by verandas, which provide changing scenery with the moving steps. In the gardens, the hills and ponds are slightly reformed and new plants are introduced. The villas, located in a relatively private area, are designed into two neighborhoods with layered space. Each individual villa has two courtyards with different features, a sober front yard and a casual backyard.

As for the buildings, traditional Su-styled construction techniques are applied in the wood, roof tiles and stone works, but other decorations are re-designed with simplified techniques and details.

Longer design and construction cycles of the project provide the design team with more time to study and solve problems. The collaboration with the internationally famed interior and landscape design firms bring a lot of excitement to the project. It is the onsite supervision throughout the whole construction period by the Four Seasons Hotels Group, Greentown Design Group and the management team that finally gives a real life to the hotel.