Mira Moon: Chinese Storytelling in Wanders & YOO’s Hong Kong Interiors

The guest-room composition pairs a vivid red centre with pale, carved forms. Images courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

Mira Moon’s 2013 interiors in Hong Kong begin with a story. Developed by Wanders & YOO for Miramar Group, the hotel interpreted the Chinese Moon Festival through the figures of the Moon Goddess and Jade Rabbit. In the original 91-room project in Wan Chai, that narrative moved into the material details of everyday spaces: timber screens, carved surfaces, peony mosaics, textiles and strongly coloured furniture.

The design materials describe a playful interpretation of the tale, allowing the goddess’s journey to become the organising idea for the hotel. Its expression is visible at several scales. A guest room might be understood first through a red headboard and pale surround, then through the finer grain of a carved panel or a floral motif. Storytelling becomes something encountered gradually through the interior.

Framed views and crafted surfaces

The room photographs show a careful relationship between enclosure and depth. Dark timber frames the openings, while lighter surfaces beyond draw the eye further inside. Carved screens introduce a second layer between spaces. Their patterns partly filter the view, making a transition visible without requiring a completely closed boundary. A familiar element of room planning becomes one of the project’s principal decorative devices.

Carved timber and layered openings give the room a sequence of framed views. Images courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

The studio’s account identifies ceramics, carved wood and cut crystal among the materials used throughout the scheme. Antique Chinese fabrics and prints informed its combination of contemporary furniture and ornamental detail. In the photographed interiors, this pairing is most effective where a relatively simple object sits beside a complex surface: a white basin against timber furniture, for example, or a plain upholstered element framed by intricate carving.

Peonies across the bathroom walls

The peony is one of the recurring motifs in the original design. It appears at a scale large enough to organise a wall, with petals and stems extending around bathroom fittings. The mosaics give the flower a different physical character from a printed image. Their small components create a textured field that can be read both as a large composition and as a worked surface at close range.

Large peony motifs bring the storytelling into the bathroom surfaces. Images courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

In one bathroom, two white basins and a freestanding bath establish a calm set of forms against that detailed background. Timber vanity furniture adds warmth and a clear horizontal line. The composition allows several materials to remain distinct: ceramic fittings, wood, pale floor surfaces and the floral wall each have their own role, while a limited group of strong colours connects them.

The bath is set against a detailed floral mosaic and warm timber furniture. Images courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

Another view places the bath beside the peony mosaic, bringing the decorative surface close to the room’s main object. The effect is intimate because the motif fills the field of vision. It is also a useful example of the project’s approach to scale: the flower remains recognisable, but its enlargement turns it into an architectural presence rather than a small accessory.

A pale material field separates the floral wall from the darker vanity. Images courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

A continuous language beyond the room

The corridor carries the same ideas into circulation. Dark timber planes, a patterned carpet and a carved screen create a sequence with a clearly marked destination. Lighting emphasises the surfaces along that route. The change from an open room to a narrower passage therefore retains the project’s material identity while adjusting its proportions and intensity.

The corridor extends the project’s timber, pattern and floral imagery beyond the rooms. Images courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

Viewed as a complete interior, Mira Moon shows how a cultural narrative can guide choices of pattern, material and spatial transition. Its character comes from the repetition and transformation of a few recognisable ideas across different rooms. Interior design: Wanders & YOO for Miramar Group, 2013. These photographs document the original scheme.

Sources: Official project documentation; Project release 1.