1 Lighting in the library doesn't just make the books look good. Warm tones flatter all guests while still providing light for reading. DESIGNERS NEED TO look beyond the five-block radius for their next city-center hotel project. Training their eye to see micro, middle-distance and macro perspectives is the new way to play the local card. MQ Studio's design for the PuXuan Hotel and Spa serves as a case in point. Making the experience perfect at all three zoom levels meant putting a magnifying glass on each part of the creative process. First up: Getting the micro right. The Büro Ole Scheeren-designed Guardian Art Center which houses the 116-key hotel is also home to an art auction house and an art gallery. So, how should the hotel handle the traffic flow and layout to work with that? Next: Finding the right focus for the immediate neighborhood. The hotel's dream location minutes from the Forbidden City and high-end shopping created some design headaches, such as how to feature those disparate views. Thirdly: The macro question of what is Beijing in design terms, and which international influences matter to both domestic and foreign guests? MAY 2019 boutiquedesign.com 19http://www.boutiquedesign.com