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Hotel Puerta
America has some front
Guests at Madrid’s Hotel Puerta America can experience a dizzy array of design fantasies says Jeroen Bergmans
Over the last decade the hotel industry has become increasingly design- obsessed and even the most traditional establishments have begun adding a trendy new restaurant, bar or suite to attract rich, design- conscious guests. The Hotel Puerta America which opened in July 2005 has set new standards in the industry by commissioning not just one big name in the world of design – but 19.
Ironically it began life as a bland conference hotel built in the shape of an open book on the side of a motorway near to Madrid’s Richard Roger’s designed Barajas airport. In 2002 the basic structure and rather dreary façade of the building were already well on the way to completion when the top brass of the Spanish owners, Hoteles Silken, paid a visit to the world’s most important annual design fair, Salone del Mobile in Milan. There they came across Grande Hotel Salone, an exhibition of concept hotel rooms of the future by 10 famous architects (curated by US designer Adam D Tihany), and hatcheda plan for their new property by signing up a dream team of the world’s top architects and designers to give the rooms and public spaces a slick, futuristic feel.
FLOOR 12
Jean Nouvel’s
top-floor suites
are sure to
impressThree years later, when a world press conference was hosted in the empty, concrete shell of the hotel, it seemed hard to imagine how the slick, architectural drawings on display would become a reality. What’s more, with so many enormous egos involved, how had they decided who would transform which floor? How would the mixture of so many different styles work? Perhaps more importantly, how would they cope with the logistical nightmare of ordering different beds, carpets and bathrooms for every floor each overseen by a different project architect? Well, the poor project manager suffered two heart attacks, the opening was a few months off schedule and the total cost spiralled to €75 million, but generally the hotel has proved a huge success and has certainly earned a place in the short history of design hotels.
At first sight, it may be a bit of a disappointment as you arrive in your airport taxi. The award-winning French architect Jean Nouvel has tried to disguise the unremarkable façade with multi-coloured blinds emblazoned with quotes from well-known poems and it doesn’t really work.
FLOOR G
sample Marc Newson’s
ground floor bar
or have a drink at
Christian Liaigre’s
illuminated bar
But once you’re inside, the public areas are stunning. John Pawson, the undisputed king of minimalism, has created an elegant lobby and reception area with a snake-like water feature that wraps around the lift area.
Leading off the reception is a breathtaking double-height bar by Australian architect Mark Newson. The main wall is constructed from seamless strips of steel that stretch up to the vaulted ceiling and cover pod-like lights and the bar itself is a huge, single slab of white, laser-cut Carrera marble, making the space typical of the computer-generated architecture of the new millennium. Opposite the bar, floor- to-ceiling windows looking out onto a large, landscaped terrace are lined with intimate seating set around Perspex boxy tables that light up at night.
On the other side of reception is the à la carte restaurant designed by Christian Liaigre, the French interior designer who created the Mercer Hotel in New York and the moody, Michelin- starred Hakkasan in London. The interiors are as smart as the modern European menu and there’s also a more informal area for coffees and snacks set around an illuminated bar, behind which stands a glass-clad wine cellar – the sine qua non of slick modern restaurants. The three public spaces work well together, but for the full Puerta America experience it’s very much a case of making sure you choose the right room to suit your taste.
FLOOR 10
Laticed window
screens are the
order of the day in
these Japanese-
style rooms.Jean Nouvel was obviously a favourite with the powers that be at Hoteles Silken because as well as the façade, he also got the plum job of designing the suites and spa on the top floor. The pool is hardly Olympic-sized, but the views are magnificent and all the treatments you’d want from a weekend break or business trip are available. The suites are sumptuous and modern and are bound to be popular amongst visiting CEOs and dignitaries as they have their own check-in facility and cutting-edge technology.
The rest of the floors are just as exciting though, as each architect and
designer has been allotted an entire floor encompassing 28, tiny 25m² rooms, a Junior suite, corridors and lobby. The rooms on the 11th floor
FLOOR 9
Desks and
cupboards-turned
- Perspex boxes fill
rooms on the ninth floorcouldn’t be more different to the penthouse suites as Spanish designer Javier Mariscal, who created the cute mascot Kobi for the Barcelona Olympics, has created crazy, contemporary ethnic patterns to emulate the urban jungle.
One floor below, Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has opted for a 21st- century take on the traditional building materials of his homeland with acres of black wood and latticed window screens that diffract the rays of the sun throughout the day.
On the ninth floor Richard Gluckman of Gluckman Mayner architects has exploited light in a totally different way. Well-known for their museum and gallery projects, including the DIA Centre for the Arts in New York and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Gluckman has turned desks, TV stations and cupboards into glowing Perspex boxes that resemble display cases and used glass walls dressed with translucent curtains to partition off the en suite bathrooms.
Kathryn Findlay’s rooms on the eighth floor are by far the most feminine in the hotel and arguably the most futuristic.
FLOOR 4
Life is a kaleidoscope
in the Plasma StudioHer lobby sports a cluster of blobby, white seating and surrounding walls are punctuated by tiny lights which change colour to match your clothes. Ron Arad’s red and white rooms on the seventh floor consist of one free- standing unit containing the bathroom on one side and the wardrobe on the other with a circular, Hugh Hefner-style bed, in front of which a boys’ toy-style TV descends from the ceiling.
Smart, polished red lacquer is the signature of London-based Australian Marc Newson’s sixth floor rooms, which provides a sharp contrast to the Versace-style decadence of the fifth, designed by Sevillian fashion designers Victorio & Lucchino who obviously had the bling-loving Russian and Arab guests in mind. Entering the fourth floor feels like walking onto the set of Bladerunner – Eva Castro & Holgen Kehne of Plasma Studio
FLOOR 5 Victorio &
Lucchio’s fifth
floor decadencehave created rather unsettling spaces that make guests feel like they’re enveloped in a kaleidoscopic crystal made of glass.
Simplicity is the order of the day on the third and second floors, designed by British architects David Chipperfield and Norman Foster respectively, but by far the most ground-breaking is the first floor designed by Pritzker Prize-winning, Baghdad-born Zaha Hadid. The lobby is lit by a beautiful €17,000 chandelier that resembles a bolt of lightening and changes colour according to the temperature. Meanwhile, her fluid
FLOOR 1
Zaha Hadid’s ground-
breaking design takes
pride of place on the
first floorrooms with their sloping horizontals that merge into verticals are like a cross between melting icebergs and Superman’s ethereal Kryptonite home.
It will be interesting to see which of the rooms prove most popular (room rates vary from floor to floor) and whether the wackier designs will stand up to the maintenance required to keep a working hotel looking fresh. But there’s no doubt about it – a stay at the Puerta America promises to be an adventure for anyone with a passion for design.
Hotel Puerta América, Avenida de América 41, Madrid, tel: +34 917 445 400, www.hotelpuertamerica.com. Deluxe doubles from €300. Jeroen Bergmans is Travel Editor of Wallpaper*
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