Piero Lissoni has designed Shanghai's The Middle House, Swire Hotels' newest House Collective property

总部位于香港的太古酒店以其巨大的隐身性和风格，一直在亚洲拓展其豪斯集体品牌。最新的一家名为“中东之家”的酒店刚刚在上海开业，这是一家富有诱惑力的新成员，也是第四家，事实上，尽管它被冠以绰号。

对于公路战士和休闲旅行者来说，酒店的位置在170亿元人民币的混合开发，香港国际扶轮太古汇，是完美无缺的。紧邻的大宗里，拥有该市最后一些历史悠久的石库门，或灯笼房，围绕着静安金融区高耸的摩天大楼。

在两座14层高的塔楼之间，包覆着圆形铝制百叶窗的条纹立面，有111个房间和102间服务型公寓，内部都是皮耶罗·利索尼(Piero Lissoni)。这位米兰的建筑师和设计师把他对柔和色调和流线型剪影的习惯性爱好转化为一种漂亮的现代空间，巧妙地融入了上海当地的设计元素。

特别是，这些卧室-起价50平方米，到顶层公寓面积660平方米-都是用亚洲风格的青铜网板、细长吊灯、手工瓷砖、丝绸面板、墙对墙长椅和低矮家具覆盖起来的，这些家具似乎漂浮在漆黑的地板上。在不那么自信的人手中，这一结果可能很容易演变成陈词滥调，但利索尼巧妙地将不同的部分统一成了一个男性化的整体，在没有从上海的刀锋式风景线(Blade Runner)从地板到天花板的窗户展开的情况下，悄悄地将其定位。

同样令人欣慰的是实验室Mixun水疗中心，这是一个庞大的娱乐穹顶，其中包括瑜伽馆、健身房、果汁酒吧和一间Hypoxi客房。为了不那么辛苦的娱乐活动，在室内温水池里悠闲地走几圈，一边喝着从相邻的果汁吧台订购的冷榨果汁，一边说些什么。

与此同时，格雷·昆茨(Gray Kunz)继续与“豪斯”(House)品牌保持长期联系，把他的名字借给酒店的主打景点-格雷·德卢克斯咖啡馆(CaféGray Deluxe)，而另外两家同样是苏菲餐厅的餐厅-这三家餐厅也都是由利索尼设计的-提供粤菜和意大利菜，而后者则在天气好的时候，

Divided between two 14-storey towers clad in a striated façade of rounded aluminium louvres the hotel’s location in the mixed-use development, HKRI Taikoo Hui, is flawless

Channeling his customary love for muted hues and streamlined silhouettes, the Milan-based architect and designer has conceived a handsome  space that artfully incorporates local Shanghainese design elements

In particular, the bedrooms are sheathed in an Asia-lite palette of bronze mesh, slender pendant lights, hand-made ceramic tiles, silk panels, wall-to-wall benches, and low-slung furniture

In less assured hands, the result might easily have descended into cliché, but Lissoni ably unifies the disparate pieces into a masculine whole

Gray Kunz, meanwhile, continues his long association with the House brand by lending his name to the hotel’s anchor attraction, Café Gray Deluxe

Two other equally soigné restaurants – all three also designed by Lissoni – serve up Cantonese and Italian fare, the latter served up, in good weather, in the adjoining garden terrace

The immediate neighbourhood, Dazhongli, holds some of the city’s last remaining historic shikumen, or lanehouses, around which rears up the towering skyscrapers of the Jing’an financial district