Oct
Hotel Puerta America
Think of it as the ultimate class project. Nineteen of the world’s preeminent architects and designers come together to design a hotel on the outskirts of Madrid. Each is given free rein over a floor or public space, and everything from the bar to the flatware to the colorfully lit parking lot boasts the stamp of a design giant.
This hugely ambitious project, in which 19 of the most prestigious names in architecture and design collaborated on a Jean Nouvel building, finally opened in 2005. The resulting 362 rooms are so cutting-edge they should carry health warnings. Among others, David Chipperfield, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, John Pawson, Marc Newson, and Ron Arad have designed rooms—some all-white and minimal (duh); some all-scarlet and curvaceous; some (Hadid’s) all-white or all-black and sculpted from LG Hi-Macs (a kind of malleable Corian); others (Arad’s) with a ten-foot circular sofa; yet more (Chipperfield’s) with black terra-cotta beds canopied in lacquered blue material. Oddly, the owners, the Silken Group, whose hotels have been multiplying like triffids, claim to be all about service and comfort, with a side of design. While service is up to scratch, comfort is often sacrificed; some of the beds and showers are too small and chairs look good, but don’t feel it. Go here if you’re looking for the visual-sensual experience of inhabiting premier architectural space—and be aware that the world’s most ambitious hotel is located between the airport and the city, so none too central.
Any hotel designed by a posse of world-famous architects and interior designers will be either brilliant or cringingly gimmicky. Happily, the 342-room Puerta America (”The Next 7 Wonders,” April 2006) falls squarely into the brilliant category, since it offers a way to inhabit some of Europe’s most avant-garde spaces. The lineup of talent, each responsible for an entire level, from the basement parking garage to the thirteenth floor: Teresa Sapey, John Pawson, Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, David Chipperfield, Plasma Studio, Victorio & Lucchino, Ron Arad, Marc Newson, Kathryn Findlay, Richard Gluckman, Arata Isozaki, Estudio Mariscal, and Jean Nouvel, along with Christian Liaigre, who designed the excellent restaurant. The most popular floor is Hadid’s: Her all-white fiberglass rooms create the impression that you’re inside a nautilus shell. A top-floor swimming pool, health club, and lounge deck offer the design maven guests who stay here a place to sweat or chill.
Car park can enjoy Italian architect Teresa Sapey’s large-scale graphics in vibrant colours.
Teresa Sapey
Car parking
Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid
Norman Foster
Norman Foster may continue to pursue his dream of high-tech architecture in other projects, but he has designed this space to be
Similarly, the bedrooms encompass everything from brown leather headboards and oak flooring to a cool backlit onyx counter and a backlit stretched canvas on the ceiling of the bathroom.
David Chipperfield
David Chipperfield has taken a monochrome approach on his floor . Triangular light bands give the corridor an almost supernatural appearance. In the rooms there is a very precise use of space, and the entire floor is made up of 7cm x 21cm, hand-cut pieces of terracotta. The desk is the same length as the bed and has the same proportions as the tiles, continuing the geometric theme. Meanwhile, the marble slabs used in the bathroom have an almost clinical feel.
Chipperfield himself calls it:
The fourth floor was the only one open to competition; a competition won by fledgling London-based practice Plasma Studio, consisting of Eva Castro and Holger Kehne.
The fourth floor was the only one open to competition; a competition won by fledgling London-based practice Plasma Studio, consisting of Eva Castro and Holger Kehne.
According to the duo, they have tried to
Victorio and Lucchino
For a refreshing contrast, ascend one more floor. Strident architectural statements give way to opulent textures and colours such as chocolate brown, anthracite grey, black, beige and deep red.
There are also black lacquer walls and a marble sphinx, as well as black velvets, distressed stone and black glass. In terms of colours and tones, Seville based designers Victorio and Lucchino wanted to achieve
Marc Newson
On the sixth floor, Marc Newson works with a more limited palette of materials: red lacquered walls in the lobby, wool carpeting, leather headboards and wooden flooring in the bedrooms, and blocks of marble in the bathrooms, all designed to be easy and accessible.
Sixth floor
Ron Arad
Accessible is not something Ron Arad could ever be accused of; one would expect nothing less from a man as synonymous with organic shapes in product design as Will Alsop is in architecture. Explaining his design for the Puerta America, Arad insists:
The curvaceous theme continues in the bedrooms: a curved Corian wall in red or white separates the different areas of the room, there is a round Cappellini bed, and the LG HI-MACS fixed to the wall forms an undulating headboard. A Bond-like TV that folds down from the ceiling completes the off-the-wall design.
Jason Bruges
The eighth floor , designed by Scottish architect, Kathryn Findlay and lighting designer, Jason Bruges, hosts optical fibre panels on the wall which trace guests
Inspired by Japanese love hotels, the rooms are definitely the most
Richard Gluckman
Richard Gluckman
In the bedrooms, the idea was to create several boxes within a box; the bathroom is a huge glass box, another houses the television, the telephone box serves as the writing desk, and so on.
Arata Isozaki
Arata Isozaki on the floor above takes his cues from the discreet elegance of traditional Japanese interiors.
Although oak panelling covers one wall and the headboard, the rooms remain spacious and well lit. In the bathrooms, a lighter hinoki wood complements the marble flooring.
Javier Mariscal and Fernando Salas
Javier Mariscal and Fernando Salas have designed the eleventh floor with absolute comfort and
Mariscal made a conscious decision to eschew the fiercely avant-garde look of other areas of the hotel:
Jean Nouvel
On the floor devoted to penthouse suites, Jean Nouvel has created rooms containing a series of sliding glass panels, so that the guest can configure the space to their requirements. Each room features photographs by Araki and Fleischer inspired by nature and the human body. Nouvel is also responsible for the terrace, bar and swimming pool.
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