How do you pick your hotel? On price alone? Amenities? Location? All of the above are common answers. But have you ever chosen a hotel based on its unique art, architecture and interior design? Here are 5 establishments purely worth staying in for their art and architecture.
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#1: Hotel Silken Puerta America (Madrid, Spain)
The Hotel Silken Puerta América Madrid describes itself as a “space that invites people to dream.” It brings together nineteen of the top architecture and design studios in the world from thirteen different countries. Within the five-star establishment, luxury is coupled with originality, innovation and formal freedom.
Hotel Silken Puerta de América © Rafael Vargas
A different concept reigns on each of the floors and all of rooms exhibit different materials, colors and shapes to “create spaces that bring together the best in avant-garde design and architecture, where creativity and the freedom to develop each of the spaces has been the hallmark.” Twelve floors and twelve ways of understanding the architecture and the design.
#2: Tree Hotel (Harads, Sweden)
The Mirror Cube, Tree Hotel © Photo: Peter Lundstrom, WDO
Inspired by the documentary film “Trädälskaren” (Treelover) by Jonas Selberg Augustsen, the owners of the Treehotel sought to create a group of unique rooms in harmony with nature and their ecological values. Set in the forest where the owners themselves live, the rooms embody a refinement of the local conditions. “Dig where you stand” as the saying goes.
In addition to accommodation, the hotel hosts a variety of activities, including a guided 1-hour tour of the premises. During summer and autumn you can enjoy outdoor activities such as cycling, hiking and cross-country running. The Lule River is a vast playground for those who enjoy kayaking or canoeing.
#3: Hotel Max (Seattle, USA)
Hotel Max in Seattle © gak
The Hotel Max showcases the work of emerging and established Seattle artists and photographers. There are more than 350 original paintings and photographs found throughout the hotel in the lobby, guest rooms and corridors. Each room door is plastered with photos of Cobain, Lennon and other artists and original paintings in each room.
To get a taste of the Queen of Art Room, for example, check out this video on YouTube. You can also look into the “Maximalism: Art at the Hotel Max, Seattle” book sold on Amazon.com for more information.
#4: Art Now Hotel (Beijing – coming soon)
At the Beijing Art Now Hotel, fourteen international designers and architects will come together to design up to four rooms for the five star establishment. By doing so, the hotel endeavors to set new standards in Beijing’s cultural scene.
The Berlin firm SMAQ, for example is responsible for the “curtain room.” On Archinect.com, the firm explains that:
… the design for the “curtain room” draws on a necessary provision for Beijing’s mosquito plagued climate: the mosquito net. Silk mosquito nets provide intimate shelter, diffuse and subtle light conditions, mystifying half transparencies and they absorb humidity.
In the room, multiple functions – bathing, sleeping, lounging and storing – are defined as spatial islands. Each of these spaces can be enclosed by curtains which vary in opacity from the light mosquito net to heavy silk drapes. The guest can determine the degree to which each of the different areas is open or closed by sliding the curtains around. Different constellations enable a variety of situations: an evening bathtub conversation when the view between the bed and the bath is opened, a private dressing room when the bath and the closet are connected, or a lounging afternoon when the bed and the lounge area are enveloped into one continuum. All of these constellations are mosquito proof and enable outdoor living in Beijing’s summer.
#5:Â The Grafton on Sunset (Los Angeles, USA)
Grafton on Sunset © icedsoul photography
In the Grafton, you too can feel like a Hollywood starlet. The establishment boasts 102 sexily-appointed hotel rooms that pride themselves as being “as legendary and transcendent as the city’s heritage.” In addition, there are six suites, each with a hip Hollywood twist.
Adorned in Italian linens, the beds are built for the sweetest dreams while the state-of-the-art entertainment systems are top quality. Luxurious, oversized guest bathrobes are made of the finest organic ingredients, and room service is as top-notch as you might expect.