The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong finally unveiled its refreshed new look in 2026.
Its striking terracotta-colored curved and undulating façade stands in vivid contrast to the grey-toned cityscape, creating a bold new landmark in the heart of Central.
Shedding its former sense of cool exclusivity, the hotel now feels more vibrant, welcoming, and open. From bustling Queen’s Road Central, guests pass through a discreet entrance and step into a world of quiet luxury.
Leading this transformation is Chinese-designer Joyce Wang, who was responsible for the hotel’s renewed interior design.
This marks her fourth collaboration with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, and, ten years after their previous project, her return to designing this landmark hotel under The Hongkong Land portfolio.
With more than two decades in the industry, Joyce Wang has become the female designer behind more Mandarin Oriental hotel projects than any other designer in the world. From Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London and the riverside Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok to The Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, each project has become a defining chapter in the brand’s legacy.
Along the way, she has also established a distinctive design signature of her own: luxurious metallic finishes, sculptural forms, and a cinematic sense of drama have become hallmarks of her work.
But this time, returning to her hometown of Hong Kong, she has taken a more intimate approach, placing greater emphasis on warmth and a sense of belonging. For this storied hotel, which carries the memories of generations of Hong Kongers, she has introduced a sense of lightness and vitality—ushering in a stylistic transformation for a new generation of Mandarin Oriental.
Two renovations, ten years apart. How has Joyce Wang reimagined this venerable icon of Hong Kong’s old-money luxury?
More Than a Visual Feast: A Truly Lived-In Sense of Home
Joyce Wang’s story with The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong began ten years ago, in 2016.
At the time, she was invited to lead the hotel’s first major renovation. Rather than following the conventional formula of grand gestures and crystal chandeliers that had long defined Hong Kong’s luxury hotels, she introduced a contemporary design language paired with an artful, residential experience.
Now, returning for the hotel’s second transformation, she has chosen to give the renovation a more distinctly Hong Kong identity.
The most immediate change is the hotel’s richer, more sophisticated palette. Terracotta-toned spaces blend the elegance of the East with the clean lines of contemporary architecture.
But where did this distinctive color come from?
From the very beginning of the design process, Joyce Wang and her team made repeated visits to traditional residences and Qing Dynasty courtyards in Yuyuan and other historic estates across Hong Kong’s New Territories.
Inspired by the character and warmth of these rural heritage homes, they ultimately selected a rich terracotta hue as the hotel’s defining color palette.
But the warmth drawn from Hong Kong’s traditional residences goes far beyond a purely visual transformation.
To bring this vision to life, one of Joyce Wang’s most significant moves was to relocate the hotel entrance from its previous tucked-away corner inside LANDMARK mall to the bustling Queen’s Road Central.
Passing through the understated entrance, guests are welcomed into a completely new, mansion-inspired lobby. It creates a seamless transition from the energy of the city to a more tranquil world, giving this urban hotel in the heart of Central the sense of warmth, shelter, and serenity traditionally associated with a private residence.
Joyce Wang distilled this distinctive experience into a precise concept: “pied-à-terre”—literally, a place to have one’s feet firmly on the ground.
“As a Hong Konger, I grew up in a high-rise apartment. It was only later in life that I truly experienced what it feels like to wake up and step straight outdoors, with your feet touching the earth. This city keeps us closely connected to one another, yet somehow, we seem to have lost that most fundamental sense of being rooted.”
To recapture this sense of belonging, she deliberately selected warm-toned stone with an earthy, tactile quality, transforming it into a winding, curved stone staircase that seamlessly connects the mansion-inspired lobby with the intimate private lounge.
As guests ascend the steps, elements discovered during her research trips—plants, birds, and familiar Hong Kong Island landscapes—are subtly woven into the carpet patterns, wall textures, and digital artworks displayed within the lobby’s alcoves.
In the corridors, gilded mirrored surfaces catch and reflect a soft, warm glow. Walking through them feels almost like following a quiet country path home.
Every detail of the arrival experience conveys the warmth, refinement, and effortless ease of a private residence. Even surrounded by the glittering skyline of the city, guests can still experience that comforting, grounded sense of home.
Joyce Wang says, “I want the hotel to become a place people genuinely want to return to again and again—a place where they can experience a Hong Kong that is modern, vibrant, and constantly evolving between the old and the new.”
Not a Complete Overhaul, but an Evolution
Returning to redesign the same hotel ten years later, does achieving a breakthrough necessarily mean overturning everything that came before?
Joyce Wang’s answer is a clear no:
“This is an evolution rather than a complete reconstruction. We deliberately retained the iconic elements that guests know and love, then reinterpreted them within a new context. For a hotel with such a rich history and heritage, that continuity is absolutely essential.”
Across the renovation of the hotel’s 109 guestrooms and suites, she retained the signature curved glass-walled bathrooms and the iconic seven-foot round bathtubs.
At the same time, responding to the evolving tastes of today’s guests, she refined details throughout the spaces—from faucets and furniture to wall textures and forms. Fresh flowers were also introduced as a natural, lived-in touch, bringing greater lightness and vitality to the interiors.
At the same time, compared with the understated modern metallic palette of the previous guestrooms, she has taken a much bolder, more confident, and narrative-driven approach to color.
Soft hues are layered with richly textured materials. Terracotta velvet sofas inject a confident sense of drama, while touches of elegant green and pale gold wallpaper add further character, allowing a vibrant personality to emerge from the hotel’s quiet Eastern sensibility.
“Design has never been about simply assembling beautiful objects. It is about creating a spiritual space that sparks curiosity and invites people to embark on a journey of discovery.”
Guided by this philosophy, Joyce Wang has transformed this decade-spanning renovation into an evolution of aesthetics rather than a complete departure from the past.
But perhaps the more significant breakthrough lies in what the renovation represents: the established old-money aesthetic of Hong Kong, embodied in Joyce Wang’s design, has successfully transcended generations. Through this transformation, the timeless elegance of the Eastern old-money style has found fresh appeal among a new generation of affluent, sophisticated guests.
Dining Table Is the Heart of Social Life—and a Visual Focal Point
Perhaps the most unconventional design move in this renovation is the oversized ceramic table at the center of the lobby bar.
In traditional Hong Kong residences, the dining table has always served as both a visual focal point and the social heart of the communal space. Joyce Wang reinterprets this familiar idea through a distinctly contemporary design language.
The two-tiered, split-level bar counter is crafted from custom-made, seamless ceramic, fired as a single piece. Its warm, matte finish creates a striking contrast within the metallic-toned lounge, clearly defining the adjacent seating areas while anchoring the entire space.
The fabrication process was exceptionally challenging. The biggest hurdle was figuring out how to achieve such an enormous scale in ceramic while keeping the entire piece perfectly seamless and visually unified.
During high-temperature firing, large-format ceramic pieces are highly susceptible to warping. They are therefore typically produced in sections and assembled afterward, with the glaze used to conceal the joints. But Joyce Wang insisted on creating the design as one complete, seamless monolithic piece, placing extraordinary demands on the craftsmanship and manufacturing process.
“This was our first time collaborating with a ceramic manufacturer. The craftsmen repeatedly adjusted the firing curves and optimized the supporting structure, and eventually overcame the engineering challenges posed by the scale and material!”
Even today, she still speaks with genuine excitement about the sense of achievement that came from taking on—and ultimately conquering—this challenge.
This unwavering pursuit of perfection through meticulous attention to detail is also a defining part of Joyce Wang’s approach to her work.
As she puts it:
“It is precisely the balance between ‘precision’ and ‘romance,’ ‘rationality’ and ‘emotion,’ and between the ‘engineer’ and the ‘artist’ that creates the unique value of design.”
From Foster + Partners to Independent Designer: A Mutually Rewarding Journey with Mandarin Oriental
Rewind ten years (2016), Joyce Wang completed two landmark projects for the Mandarin Oriental brand in London and Bangkok.
She first took on the renovation of Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, overseeing the overall planning and design of its 181 guestrooms and public areas. It was the hotel’s largest renovation in its 115-year history, with an investment of several million pounds.
Drawing inspiration from the adjacent Hyde Park, she brought the changing colors of the seasons into the guestrooms. Flower-like glass chandeliers, carpets patterned with fallen leaves, and duck-feather-inspired gilded mirrors—natural elements quietly found their way into the interiors, breathing new life into the spaces.
The Mandarin Oriental-managed residences in Bangkok, unveiled in 2019, marked Joyce Wang’s first architectural project in Thailand and the first Mandarin Oriental-branded residences in Southeast Asia.
Fan-shaped metal screens, enamel artworks tracing the delicate patterns of fishing nets in gold, and oversized metallic pebbles embedded into the flooring quietly weave luxurious materials together with local cultural references. Together, they transform the 146-unit luxury waterfront residences into a tranquil sanctuary along the Chao Phraya River.
“Behind every collaboration lies countless rounds of refinement and candid conversations between our team and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. Ultimately, everything is about creating a better experience for the guests.”
She describes the process as a kind of carefully choreographed dance of space—one that must balance guest circulation with the sensory experience of every detail, create a welcoming atmosphere for both local and international guests, and appeal to the tastes of both younger and more mature clientele.
This goes far beyond design in the conventional sense. It is ultimately about creating a hotel experience that feels authentic, enduring, and forward-looking.
Joyce Wang was born in Hawaii and studied at the Royal College of Art in London before pursuing a dual degree in architecture and materials science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
After graduating, she worked under the founder of British architecture and design firm Foster + Partners. She has since established her own independent studio (Joyce Wang Studio) in Hong Kong and London.
Her “nomadic” global journey has profoundly shaped her rigorous design foundation and international perspective, seamlessly blending Eastern and Western influences. It has also allowed her to create a body of work for Mandarin Oriental that has evolved alongside the brand itself—with each project becoming a distinctive part of its design legacy.
From Hong Kong to Shanghai: Creating a Legendary Private Members’ Club
Joyce Wang’s work extends far beyond the world of luxury hotels. She is also the designer behind Club Bâtard, an exclusive private members’ wine club.
When Club Bâtard opened in Hong Kong in 2024, it quickly became a sensation, reportedly reaching full membership within just a few months, with a joining fee of up to HK$128,000.
The club embraces a contemporary aesthetic throughout. Making full use of the building’s distinctive high ceilings, Joyce Wang created an exceptionally luxurious wine cellar—the largest of its kind in Asia.
The second Club Bâtard has arrived in Shanghai in 2026, taking over Cha House, a century-old heritage building within Taikoo Hui Shanghai in the heart of Jing’an. Occupying the entire three-story building, the club will bring together five dining spaces, each with its own distinctive character.
Renovation officially began in July 2026, with the club scheduled to open in November. Once unveiled, it is expected to redefine the landscape of luxury socializing among Shanghai’s elite.
Under Joyce Wang’s design direction, the space deliberately moves away from an open-plan layout. Instead, a walk-in wine cellar extending across all three floors unfolds through a sequence of intimate, progressively layered rooms.
The wine cellar is seamlessly integrated into the overall experience, allowing members to wander along the circulation path, explore and select their wines, then return to their seats to savor them—creating an experience that feels fluid, immersive, and deeply personal.
Much like the space itself, the answer to what luxury truly means seems to emerge naturally:
“For me, true luxury exists in the nuances. It is a one-of-a-kind experience created through layers, craftsmanship, and attention to detail. And the key to experiencing luxury lies in the person behind the work—the author. When people become curious about the magician behind the magic, that is the greatest compliment we could receive for our work.”
