The Nhow Hotel, Berlin
Anyone who is used to writing about hotels, restaurants, museums or bars knows what I am talking about. There is no website, dossier or presentation of an establishment that does not include as added value the name of the Frenchman Philippe Stack associated with his interior design. And this, initially, was fine, very fine indeed: in 2003 we welcomed the Louis Ghost chairs in polycarbonate printed with faces of Asian models of the Parisian restaurant Kong, we fervently praise the hotel horror vacui Faena in Buenos Aires and, even more recently, the Mama Shelter in Paris broke with all established schemes, rising to the top of the ranking as one of the best design hotels in the world. But no more please we are tired and 'overstarcked', we want to know different places, with their own identity and orange juicers that do not look like spaceships.
Nhow Hotel (Berlin), by Karim Rashid.
KARIM RASHID: NHOW HOTEL, BERLIN
The unmistakable style of this prolific industrial designer rarely makes it to hotels, in fact only five establishments have been lucky enough to wear these colorful and versatile profiles so in keeping with the contemporaneity that he practices. Because for Rashid the most important thing is to create sensory spaces where 'what is current' invades everything, since he does not like nostalgia in design: he is more of inventing in the present without looking to the past. For this reason he has designed a hotel with 304 innovative rooms where everything is very dynamic. In the Nhow Hotel fuchsias, purples, blues and greens flood everything, as well as the pristine white of some of the common areas. In addition, it is worth noting that the hotel is dedicated to music so guests have access to 100 music channels, iPod docking stations and a Gibson guitar in their room if they wish. It also has two recording studios for any musical production and two multimedia spaces: a suite for presentations and a private cinema.
Marcel Wanders designed the Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht in Amsterdam.
MARCEL WANDERS: ANDAZ AMSTERDAM PRINSENGRACHT, AMSTERDAM
Although on occasion he has described himself as an amateur, due to his tireless search for solutions to his own indecision, The truth is that this designer and architect has little to prove after being awarded the Design Excellence Award in 2009 for his undeniable contribution to the field of European and world design. The 'Lady Gaga of design', as the New York Times defined her, He was in charge of shaping the old public library of Amsterdam and converting it into the impressive Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht, of the Hyatt chain. A five-star boutique hotel that might well seem Alice's Wonderland only framed between the Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht canals. One of his crazy ideas applied in the rooms are the photographic images of each headboard, the so-called 'Connected Polarity', a mixture of two objects that have little to do with each other , like a fish and a spoon or a fish and a vase. With them Marcel Wanders wished express the conciliatory and tolerant character of a city with an open mind and without preconceived ideas.
The little Parisian Hotel O de Ora-ïto.
ORA-ÏTO: HOTEL O, PARIS
This French designer — who rose to fame for inventing virtual products that never existed for real brands that never sued him— He decided in the year 2000 that it was time to materialize those simple products that he was so passionate about and that were in demand, but online. Adored by international firms, from Nike to Toyota, passing through Tierry Mugler or Guerlain, at some point in his brilliant and busy schedule Ora-ïto decided that it was time to launch into interior design and invented the ** Hotel O , in the heart of the Parisian district des Halles in Paris.** Technological, contemporary, simple, this is how his 29 rooms are: each one in a different color. Curved and futuristic spaces in the purest style of a Space Odyssey . The Galileo rooms have their point with the double bed embedded in the wall.
W Vieques Island of Puerto Rico, by Patricia Urquiola.
PATRICIA URQUIOLA: W VIEQUES ISLAND, PUERTO RICO
From time to time this Asturian architect finds a gap in her Milan studio to, between design and design of pieces for B&B or Moroso, give shape to renowned buildings that need her ideas. Thus, **she lent her eclectic wit to the Caribbean resort W Retreat & Spa, Puerto Rico's Vieques Island,** where local traditions have been interpreted by the designer so that carved wood, tapestries, rugs, metal pieces and other accessories were dressed in a much more modern look without interfering with what is most important: the views of the bioluminescent bay where this property of more than 10 hectares is framed. We love the color provided by the Tropicalia (Moroso) braided chairs in the lobby and its comfortable daybed version to enjoy that sunset colored by the emission of chemical light that arises from nature. A quite different design from the one that Urquiola has just applied in the elegant and discreet Das Stue, with views of the Berlin Zoo, much more sober and warm.
The Room Mate Aitana decorated by Tomás Alía, in Amsterdam.
TOMÁS ALÍA: ROOM MATE AITANA, AMSTERDAM
Whether you like it or not, Tomás Alía is a stalwart of interior design in Spain and Kike Sarasola knows it, which is why he usually entrusts him with the decoration of his hotels with the intention of giving them **a differentiated personality according to each of the proper names of the chain: Óscar, Mario... and now Aitana,** a 283-room Room Mate located on a new artificial island in Amsterdam. On this occasion, the Spanish interior architect returns to loaded with color and asymmetries and even launches to shape themed rooms with his most personal stamp: they are the Graffity, Bicycle and Ceramic. Right now the hotel is in the process of choosing the girl who will be the image and face of Aitana: on the 25th they will announce the name of the lucky winner of the contest, who will surely be cosmopolitan, traveler and very, very interesting.