New Hotel
Hôtel Original
Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht
Nhow Berlin
The Mayer Manor
Le Bellechasse
Kruisherenhotel Maastricht
Boscolo Milano
Le Royal Monceau
Hi Hotel Eco Spa & Beach
November, 2013
When dealing with a major design talent, sometimes the best direction a hotelier can give is no direction at all. Here we’ve gathered some of our favorite designer-driven hotels in Europe, where the appetite for bold hotel design is especially strong — from a converted 15th-century convent in Amsterdam to a high-luxury Philippe Starck fantasyland in Paris.
1.
New Hotel
Athens — In 2011, when the owners of the New Hotel decided to gut what was then the Olympic Palace, they hired interior architects Fernando and Humberto Campana to reassemble every door, beam, and piece of stone into a wholly new — and wholly recycled — hotel. And somehow they turned the scraps into not just a visually striking hotel, but a surprisingly comfortable one, too.
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2.
Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht
Amsterdam — To design their Amsterdam outpost, the hoteliers behind the Andaz didn’t have to look far for talent; the hotel shares a neighborhood, the Jordaan district, with Marcel Wanders, maximalist man of the moment and the mind behind this extravagantly whimsical hotel. The result is a rare treat for the hotel junkie: the work of one of the world’s top designers, at home on native soil.
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3.
Hôtel Original
Paris — “Original” is really quite an understatement; to check in at this Paris hotel is to step into the mind of mad genius fashion designer Stella Cadente. Rooms recall everything from an enchanted forest to a mermaid’s paradise, evoked by way of wonderfully bizarre details like an iron stag’s head with glowing eyes and jellyfish-tentacled lamps.
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4.
Nhow Berlin
Berlin — One look at architect Sergei Tchoban’s blocky building cantilevered over the Spree and you know it’s an unusual hotel. Still, nothing quite prepares one for the Karim Rashid–designed wonderland within. The building’s wide-open industrial spaces are adorned with confection-colored plastic blobs, almost liquid-looking in all their curves, for a hotel that feels like a live-in lava lamp.
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5.
The Mayer Manor
Amsterdam — The Mayer Manor, with its one multi-level suite spanning two floors atop a centuries-old convent, looks more like a movie set than a hotel. Fortunately, the cinematic surfaces are backed up by some deeply livable spaces designed by the hotelier Jochem Janssen, from the fully outfitted kitchen with its gleaming cookware to the bathroom with its deep copper tub beside a fireplace.
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6.
Le Bellechasse
Paris — While Paris is no longer short on bold, designer-driven hotels, it’s rare to find one that’s at once so outré and so high-end. At Le Bellechasse, Christian Lacroix has covered the walls in wildly colorful, intricately graphic wallpaper, combining the materials of a Parisian luxury hotel (dreamy beds, deep tubs, rich fabrics…) with a spirit of aesthetic free-association.
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7.
Kruisherenhotel Maastricht
Maastricht, Netherlands — Our first Dutch entry was a converted 15th-century convent, and here we have a 15th-century monastery remade by interior designer Henk Vos. Though Gothic architecture sets the tone, inside the spaces feel deeply altered by the sleek modern furnishings from top Dutch designers, lighting installations by the artist Ingo Maurer, and bits and bobs by the likes of Le Corbusier and Marc Newson.
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8.
Le Royal Monceau
Paris — Here at Le Royal Monceau, seemingly unconstrained by budgetary concerns, Philippe Starck’s imagination perhaps runs wildest of all. There’s glass and crystal everywhere, from the staircase with its million tiny chandeliers to the hall-of-mirrors bathrooms; hallucinogenic stripes line the halls; and the hotel even has its own Art District, though in truth the whole place feels like a live-in art installation.
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9.
Hi Hotel Eco Spa & Beach
Nice — Anyone familiar with the small chain of Hi hotels will recognize designer Matali Crasset’s distinctive, ever-colorful work at a glance. At the Hi Hotel in Nice, color schemes range from “White & White,” which is just what it sounds like, to “Digital,” with the walls of the room covered in foot-high blue and green pixels. At the center of it all is the Happy Bar, as bright as all the rest and perfectly at home.
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10.
Boscolo Milano
Milan — Outside, the Boscolo Milano looks like another elegant old bank building in Italy’s businesslike “grey city,” but designer Italo Rota’s interiors are a riot of colors, forms and textures, each room a fresh permutation of Bisazza tilework, vivid paint and eye-catching contemporary furniture. And the spa, with its dewy metallic bubbles clinging to the ceilings and walls, simply must be seen to be believed.
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