I was supposed to write an article about, the Palace of the Lost City, in South Africa. But just after doing all the research and preparation, I was away in Macau this past week for both a business and leisure trip.
As usual I went to Henry’s, to have my lunch. The Africa Chicken is still great but the grilled ribs were a bit rough this time. After Lunch I planned to walk to my favorite hotel, the Sao Tiago Hotel to have an afternoon coffee.
Everything seems the same as before…the plants climbed the outside wall of the hotel and it looked a bit new…Sao Tiago, the old friend that I visited every year; with that old room where I finished the editing of my first book; that old fellow from the housekeeping dept; also that tiny swimming pool I used to swim in a lot…I haven’t seen you for two years, is everything all right?
After I entered the hotel and climbed all those steps, all my sadness and surprise from what I found there, within an hour, made me change my writing plan completely.
So, now I am writing this article, to say goodbye, to Sao Tiago, to my dream castle…
Macau Sao Tiago Hotel was built from the remains of the 1st castle in Macau, originally constructed 371 years ago. It was a Portuguese style building with a southern Europe romantic feel. The hotel was established in 1982 with 24 hotel rooms. It had the traditional cream walls with reddish tiles and a waterfall tunnel. You could see the Portuguese arches everywhere and it had the typical European style features. The hotel looked very elegant but was simply traditional.
When I last visited this familiar place, the old tiles in the hallways looks a bit shabby, but you could feel that time was passing from all those cracks in the floor. Also the floor inside the rooms was also old and even a bit slippery, but the rooms were filled with “the shine of classic style”, from the old style beds and Baroque wood curved furniture, to the blue and pink combination tiles in the bathroom. 
The design of restaurant was also simple and pure. It had early oriental style leather chairs and blue patterned Portuguese tablecloths, to match the black and white photos on the beige walls…all of these things brought a feeling of “classic”.
Those thoughts of respect to the valuable memories and the three hundred years of European art, were all gone since my last visit, two years ago…
I had heard that the designer of the New Sao Tiago was the one who designed Burj Al-Arab Hotel in Dubai. Thank god I hadn’t visited the Burj Al-Arab Hotel during my busy working days in Dubai.
If I used one word to describe the new “Sao Tiago” hotel, it would be
“Luxury”.
They have added LED lighting features to the old style steps at the entrance; The bar area is packed with fancy leather made chairs and crystal stripes; everywhere there is glass with frosted patterns on it; The floor looks like the new opera house in Beijing, combining different types of marbles that reflect all the lighting from ceiling. But it also reflects the patterns from glass ceiling and the patterns from the window frames, mixed with natural light from outside, it made me dizzy; Black marble without any pattern is used as the hallway flooring, it is shiny and slippery without any solid feel. In the small reception area, all different shapes, lengths and materials were used to highlight everything, making you really doubt what the original design concept of this hotel was.
The area in front of public toilet is all white, so it makes the small Portuguese blue tiles look lonely on the wall. The public toilet is even worse, the walls and floor are made of normal black plain marble, and are mixed with normal basins and counter tops, but then they used a high tech toilet flushing system. The toilet accessories are also very ordinary, making you doubt: “am I in the Sao Tiago?”
The hotel rooms want to emphasize one theme also: Luxury! So they used leather frames combined with a plain door. The doorbell, door handle, room number etc. are all regular stuff that you could easily find in the market. Seems someone forgot to pay much attention to this kind of detail in the design, when trying to match the whole theme.
The new rooms are double the size of the old ones, so in total there are only 12 suites. I don’t want to comment on if it was a smart idea to combine all the rooms together from a marketing perspective, only the design of the new rooms surprises me: I saw the same regular wardrobe units and materials that I have seen elsewhere in other hotels, and while visiting the show room suite; I saw ordinary lamps from the market and those weird pink bedding sheets. The leather floor still has that new smell. They have two very expensive TVs from Denmark but with a plain, no-design background behind them. The most expensive shower system you can buy is found in the bathroom, but the design is as plain as the public toilet. Even with an invisible TV in the shower area, and a Hermes shower set, I couldn’t relate the whole thing to having “good taste” at all. The artwork on the walls and the weird proportioned rugs didn’t even surprise me a lot. 
The hallway outside of the hotel rooms used the same black marble floor. They added a false rock feature in the hallway with something that looks like fiber optic or LED lighting; it made me suddenly recall the simulated war table in the movie <red cliff>. Especially with shiny surfaces everywhere that reflect all the lighting, coming from all different angles.
Last and the most important part of a good hotel design, is the detail design: such as the tissue box in the room and the sockets; such as the ashtrays and promotion menu in the bar, shelves that display the liquor bottles, even the production of the sign with the bars name, couldn’t satisfied me.
I was rambling all over the hotel, wishing that I could find something of the old days of this special hotel. The people are the same but everything has changed now. It had a painful feeling piercing my heart.
I was wondered about the designer of the new hotel, was he the same as me, had he even pilgrim aged to this hotel a few times every year. Did he ever think to keep, and to reconsolidate the old things, mixing them with all the contemporary elements to make something that could last an eternity?
After all, this is not Dubai. This is not brand new architecture on an artificial island, not a beacon of wealth and hi-technology.
The pure personality of Macau and the depth of the south European style should have determined the primary hotel design concept. Then all the related styles, materials, units & combinations must follow this concept, no matter what, the exterior wall, the public area, the hotel rooms, or the entertaining features, each detail and each part must follow this primary concept.
So I am wondering, as a hotel designer, what is our duty? Do we have a responsibility to help our client to analyze all the needed knowledge in terms of history, regional culture, art, etc., even in the marketing field? Do we have the responsibility to help our client set up the correct marketing target before we start the design mission?
As a modern boutique hotel, to be honest, Sao Tiago is a good choice. But on that peaceful corner in the western part of Macau, behind all the swinging shadows of the old trees, the Macau Sao Tiago hotel is tarnishing her beauty; it’s beauty was from all the cheerful memories and unforgettable days…
Walking out from the hotel, I turned my head back many times. I don’t know if I will still come to taste that cup of bitter but rich espresso. But I do hope if I do come back again, I can find some of those old feelings…at this moment, I am listening to the songs of Sofia Ribeiro:
Some things in this world shouldn’t disappear.
Written in my studio on April 16th 2009
本來是預備寫另一所城堡的-----南非近約翰内斯堡的迷城皇宮酒店，案頭資料就緒，提筆之前到澳門為公為私小游片刻。
照例的去那間熟悉的亨利餐廳，非洲辣雞還是水準之上，但牛肋骨就差了些火候，然後固執的步行到澳門我唯一喜歡的酒店---聖地亞哥古堡酒店，去嘆一杯咖啡。路上的景色別來無恙，酒店外的爬墻籐似乎新了一些。聖地亞哥，這間我每年探訪的老朋友，那個我完成了第一本書稿編輯的老房子，住房部極度斯文而熱心
腸的老服務員，還有那小巧的泳池……兩年不見，還好吧？
在進入酒店爬上幾級臺階之後的一個小時，我所受到的驚嚇，打擊與悲嘆，使我推翻了我原有的全部寫作計劃，籍此文，來惜別聖地亞哥，惜別我永遠的夢幻城堡。
澳門聖地牙哥古堡酒店，是由371年前澳門的第一座古堡改造的葡萄牙傳統建築樣式的酒店。是一家有著歐陸浪漫氣氛的堡壘式酒店。酒店于1982年開業，曾有24間客房，白牆紅瓦，水聲淙淙的隧道石階，四處可見的葡式拱門，小徑回廊，古樸優雅。
走廊的紅塼糙舊，但滄桑的紋路能感受到歲月的洗磨。房間的地面已經磨得很光滑了，舊式的木床頭，巴洛克風格的木雕花搖椅，洗手間藍紅相襯的墻式組合等，皆充滿了古典主義的韻致。餐廳的設計很簡樸，有些舊上海味道的深棕色皮椅，配著簡潔的葡式台布，及墻上一幅幅黑白相片，無不體驗著“經典”二字。
這些珍貴的充滿對悠悠歲月的留戀與對三百年前歐洲古典文化藝術之尊重的精彩回憶，都在兩年前完結了。
據説現在的聖地牙哥是由杜拜的7星級帆船酒店設計師包辦的，好在我百忙之中在杜拜偏偏沒有參觀Burj Al-Arab Hotel，看來我當地的朋友著實有眼光。
現在的聖地牙哥酒店，綜合一句，就是“奢華”。
原來的舊臺階加上了LED燈具；酒吧區變成了浮華的皮椅與水晶的天下，到處是玻璃及玻璃上眼花繚亂的磨砂花；地面似乎頗有些北京中國大劇院的影子，用不同的云石反射著燈光構成圖案，再對襯著天花相應的玻璃圖案及窗框的綫條再加上戶外的自然光揉在一起，可真亂。走廊大部分用細黑痲云石，又亮又滑，沒有質感；酒店的reception 僅小小的空間，用不同的長短高低形狀與質地去撞，令人懷疑設計的最初理念。
通向公共洗手間的空間是一味的白，更顯得那塊葡萄牙藍塼之孤單。而公共洗手間可以用“慘不忍睹”來形容：普通的云石地面及墻面，平庸的洗手台與洗手盆，再加上不倫不類的繁複的沖厠系統，及一些酒樓也使用的配件，使你完全想象不出：這竟然是聖地牙哥的洗手間！
酒店房間為增添奢華的感覺，用皮門框配沒有任何立體紋路的大門。門鈡，門牌及門把手也是市場上的貨，沒有為配合整體設計而追求的細節的精致。
房間是把本已不小的24間房合併為12間套房。 且不說這種思路是否符合市場學的觀點，僅是房間裏的設計就讓我“大開眼界”：在示範單位常見到的衣櫃組合，配上市場上常見的燈具，還有莫名其妙的粉紅色色系的牀上用品，在真皮地板還泛出的陣陣皮香下，完全顯得格格不入；房間2部來自丹麥單價超過12萬港幣的B&O超大液晶電視在空曠的背景下那麽單薄；即使擁有全國最大的帶蒸汽浴熱帶雨林花灑卻一樣是無驚喜的浴室設計；即使是有日本進口按摩浴缸，浴室鏡中隱藏電視，巴黎愛瑪氏牌沐浴用品等，但整體感覺就是跟不上“品位”二字，卻顯得小小滑稽。而酒店示範房間的地毯及墻上的畫，恕我寡聞，都不覺得是點睛之筆。
房間的走廊一樣是黑云石，突然加上一個假山石的陣，再配上鋼枝上點點LED或是fiber 燈什麽的，讓我想起了電影《赤壁》裏的桌上模擬戰場。而且到處是亮的，反射著各個角度的光，讓人目眩。
而作爲出色設計的重點，如細節：房間内的紙巾盒，當眼処的電位，酒吧的煙灰缸，推廣餐牌，酒瓶的陳列架，即使是酒吧名牌的製作，也是沒有足夠心思可言。
我在酒店上上下下逡巡，希望找回過去的點點滴滴，人猶在，物已非，陣陣的心痛絞著我，我在懷疑新酒店的設計者是否會如我過去一樣的每年來朝拜聖地牙哥一番，會否也是在珍視古典的同時，加以機智的時尚因素，來美化這個大家的心中古堡。
畢竟，這裡不是杜拜，不是一個在人工島上的嶄新建築，不是一個完全基於金錢與高科技的標誌。澳門的古樸歷史與澳門聖地牙哥古堡酒店所經年獨有的南歐幽深特性，就決定了酒店最根本的設計方針。那麽所有的風格，材料，組合都將以這種方針為主，無論是酒店的外墻，一直到公共區域，客房，娛樂場所，一點一滴，一磚一瓦都將符合這個統一的設計方針。
我在想，作爲一個酒店設計師，我們的職責是什麽？我們是否在進行設計前有需要去同客人分析與分享我們對歷史，地域文化，藝術，甚至市場的知識，是否有需要去幫我們的客人做一個正確的市場定位。
以一間時尚的精品酒店而言，澳門聖地牙哥古堡酒店尚算佳選。但在美麗的澳門西灣一角，寧靜的婆娑樹影后，這間曾經美麗的酒店是多麽遺憾的喪失著她那因歲月沉澱而成的風采啊……
走出酒店，我幾乎是步步回頭的望向她。我不知我還會不會再來飲苦郁的咖啡，但我更希望再來時，能找回消失的一些回憶, 而此刻，Sofia Ribeiro的歌聲響起，世界上有些東西，是不應該消失的……
2009年4月16日 寫于我的工作室
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