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      Irina Kromayer designs Château Royal hotel to feel “authentic” rather than retro

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      Interior architect Irina Kromayer has overseen the design of Berlin’s Château Royal hotel, creating a series of eclectic spaces that reference the heyday of the German capital at the turn of the 20th century.

      The 93-room Château Royal is located in the heart of Mitte, on a street parallel to Unter den Linden boulevard and close to the iconic Brandenburg Gate.
      Château Royal has 93 rooms (top image) as well as a fireside lounge (above)  The hotel comprises two buildings dating from 1850 and 1910, as well as a newer building and roof extension designed by David Chipperfield Architects.
      The renovation project, led by Kromayer with support from Swiss architect Etienne Descloux and interior designer Katariina Minits, aims to reflect the periods during which the heritage-listed buildings were constructed.
      Built-in joinery features in all the guest rooms”Our design goal was to provide the traveller with an ‘authentic’ experience of being in Berlin, using materials and colours that traditionally stand for the city’s heyday,” Kromayer told Dezeen.

      Oak panelling, art nouveau tiles, sisal carpets and hardware in brass and nickel were incorporated into the scheme based on the finishings commonly found in Berlin’s historic buildings.
      This was informed by the storage walls of traditional West Berlin apartmentsKromayer designed much of the furniture herself – as well as in collaboration with Porto-based German designer Christian Haas – in order to achieve a seamless merging of contemporary and classic details.
      “We didn’t want the hotel to be retro but rather to feel classic so we simplified things into less decorative shapes,” she explained.
      In addition, vintage pieces were sourced from all over Europe to give a lived-in “patina” to the interior and explore a more sustainable approach to furniture sourcing.
      Loupiotte pendant lights emphasise the building’s high ceilingsThe pendant lights for the guest rooms were created in collaboration with Berlin-based manufacturer Loupiotte and are intended to emphasise the building’s high ceilings.
      Made from Japanese paper and brass, the lamps are based on a 1920s design from Josef Hoffmann, one of the co-founders of the Wiener Werkstätte art movement.

      Batek Architekten renovates historic cinema in pastel and earth-coloured hues

      The hotel’s custom-made wooden beds feature headboards crafted from Viennese wickerwork. Kromayer also created outdoor lanterns that reference traditional Berlin street lights and include unique glass panels made by artist Paul Hance.
      Built-in joinery found in each of the bedrooms was informed by the partition walls with integrated storage, which are typical of traditional West Berlin apartments.
      Glazed blue tiles can be found in the guest bathroomsPaintings by early 20th-century artists associated with the expressionist and new objectivity movements influenced the hotel’s bold colour scheme, which is applied across surfaces including tiles and upholstery textiles, along with curated artworks.
      The interior features colourful glazed bricks and tiles similar to those found in Berlin’s underground stations, as well as stained glass and coloured marble.
      Stained-glass panels brighten up the hotel barThe hotel bar is made from tin – a material Kromayer says was widely used at the turn of the century but is rarely found in contemporary German interiors. Nickel and chrome bathroom fixtures were chosen to reference the modernist and Bauhaus design movements.
      Alongside its guest rooms, which include 13 suites and an apartment, Château Royal also accommodates a lobby, bar, restaurant, private dining room, fireside lounge and winter garden.
      A Karl Holmqvist artwork hangs inside the hotel’s Dóttir eateryBuilt-in carpentry used throughout the public areas helps to create a sense of consistency with the bedrooms, while vintage furniture, rugs and lamps made for the hotel by KL Ceramics add to the eclectic feel of the spaces.
      The hotel’s restaurant, called Dóttir, features upholstered oak seating by Bauhaus designer Erich Dieckmann. Artworks including a neon piece by Karl Holmqvist bring character to the ground-floor eatery.
      Other recent renovation projects from Berlin include a pistachio-toned revamp of one of the city’s oldest cinemas and a hotel housed inside an abandoned women’s prison.
      The photography is by Felix Brueggemann.

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      Coordination merges Berlin attic apartments to create artsy penthouse

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      Design studio Coordination has combined two attic apartments into a single penthouse in Berlin, crafting its interiors around the owner’s art collection.

      The formerly separate attic apartments were added to the 19th-century residential building in the 1990s. By bringing them together, Coordination created a spacious penthouse of 131 square metres, with a floorplan that is split into a private and a public zone.
      Coordination has designed a penthouse in BerlinThe latter houses the kitchen, which is finished with dark wooden cabinetry to complement a moody 17th-century portrait displayed in the adjacent dining area.
      Here, there’s a large oval table supported by two concave legs, while amorphous pink, orange and berry-red pendant lights are suspended from the ceiling.
      The apartment’s owner can showcase ornaments on a custom shelving unitDividing these two spaces is what appears to be an oversized marble island but is actually a part of the apartment below that juts into the penthouse.

      Rather than trying to obscure this structure, Coordination has made it into a display plinth for the owner’s sculpture collection.
      Blue walls in the bedroom nod to the maritime-themed artwork on displayA tall brass-edged glass door grants access to the more private section of the home, where the living room can be found. Its walls are rendered in very pale green, drawing on the colours of an 18th-century painting of Christ and the Virgin Mary that’s mounted above the sofa.
      The same shade of green was applied to the base of a bespoke floor-to-ceiling shelf, where the owner can showcase different ornaments. A niche was also added to house their piano.

      Gisbert Pöppler designs Berlin apartment like a “tailor-made suit”

      In the bedroom, surfaces were painted blue in reference to the various maritime artworks on show here.
      Turquoise-coloured storage was installed in the dressing room and a navy feature panel fitted behind the sink in the bathroom.
      Turquoise storage was installed in the adjacent dressing roomBerlin-based Coordination was founded in 2004 by Flip Sellin and Jochen Gringmuth.
      The studio isn’t the only one to take a client’s private collection into consideration when designing their home.
      In London, Gianni Botsford Architects devised a corten-steel extension to accommodate the owner’s curated selection of photographs, prints and lithographs, while over in Amsterdam i29 added double-height shelving to an apartment to show off the owner’s vast array of books and art objects.
      The photography is by Anne Deppe.
      Project credits:
      Architecture: CoordinationInterior concept: Flip SellinTeam: Chikako Sakamoto, Theresa OttoPartners: Vorschub, Greendom, Steinzeit BerlinProject management: Lena KramerFurniture design: Flip Sellin, Max WosczynaLighting concept: Coordination, Weißpunkt und purpurStyling: Nici Theuerkauf

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      Axel Arigato rejects “McDonald's approach” to interiors with Berlin flagship store

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      Travertine displays that double as DJ podiums feature alongside glistening butter-yellow columns in Axel Arigato’s Berlin outpost, which the streetwear label has designed together with longtime collaborator Halleroed.

      The brand’s flagship boutique is set in the central Scheunenviertel neighbourhood, across the ground floor of a prefabricated concrete Plattenbau building typical of post-war East Germany.
      Axel Arigato has opened a flagship store in BerlinStockholm design studio Halleroed was tasked with conceiving the interior scheme for the space, reviving some of the key visual themes the practice has established across all of Axel Arigato’s other stores.
      Rather than simply copy-and-pasting these elements, Halleroed mixed and matched them to create something new.
      Travertine was used to cover the floors and form chunky shelvesThis is illustrated in the store’s pale yellow columns, which effectively merge the glossy lacquered-metal surfaces seen in the London boutique with a muted version of the distinctive yellow accents that were used in the pop-up Stockholm shop.

      “We don’t have a McDonald’s approach where each store looks the same,” explained Axel Arigato’s creative director Max Svärdh.
      “We treat them as contemporary galleries and focus less on the transactional element, whilst staying true to our blueprint that keeps coming back in new shapes and materials.”
      Yellow-lacquered metal was used to envelop columns and form clothes railsRoman travertine, which features heavily across the brand’s Paris boutique, was used to cover the entire expanse of the floor, as well as forming chunky shelves and the plinths that encircle the interior columns.
      Rendered in various shapes, sizes and textures, these sculptural plinths can be used to display different trainers or act as counters and curved seating nooks when Axel Arigato is hosting an event in the store, which can comfortably accommodate up to 250 people.
      “The podiums – and in a way all the surfaces – are multipurpose in that we use them for displaying the weekly rotation of product drops, DJ decks at parties or pop-up merchandise when we hand over the space to other creatives,” Svärdh told Dezeen.

      Axel Arigato opens “upside-down” pop-up sneaker shop in Selfridges

      The raw natural texture of the travertine is contrasted against the lacquered metal, which was used to envelop the pillars and form a series of clothing rails curved around the perimeter of the room.
      “The glossy finish lends a highly visual element to our spaces and creates a nice contrast to the very organic materials and softer characters of the stone and the store’s generally muted character,” Svärdh explained.
      Mirrored pillars bookend a huge LED screenTogether with the floor-to-ceiling mirrors flanking a huge LED display, the shiny metal surfaces also help to reflect the illumination that is provided by the rows of strip lights running all the way across the ceiling.
      The flagship is Axel Arigato’s second bricks-and-mortar store in Germany, following the opening of its Munich outpost last November.
      Axel Arigato joins Hay, Acne Studios and a growing number of international brands that have moved into the Scheunenviertel in recent years. The area is rapidly being expanded into an alternative shopping destination tucked away behind the more touristy destinations of Berlin’s central Alexander Platz.
      Other businesses in the Scheunenviertel neighbourhood include Sofi – a bakery set in the courtyard of a restored brick factory.

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      Cells in former Berlin prison turned into guest rooms for hotel Wilmina

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      German practice Grüntuch Ernst Architects has converted an abandoned women’s prison and courthouse in Berlin into a “tranquil” hotel.

      Called Wilmina, the hotel occupies a duo of listed 19th-century structures in Charlottenburg that had been forgotten for decades prior to their renovation.
      Grüntuch Ernst Architects has converted a prison into the Wilmina hotelThe former court, which sits at the entrance on Kantstraße, accommodates the hotel’s reception as well as a temporary gallery called Amtsalon.
      An extension housing Wilmina’s restaurant connects the courthouse to the prison’s U-shaped cell block, which fits 44 guest rooms across five levels including a new penthouse floor at the top.
      Grüntuch Ernst Architects also added a roof terrace above the penthouse alongside a library, bar, spa and gym.

      Guest rooms are arranged on narrow galleries around the atriumInteriors were designed to respect the buildings’ existing architecture and reveal traces of their former use.
      “The process involved reversing the spatial configuration and its meaning so that an anti-social space can become an inviting place,” said the architecture firm, which was founded by husband-wife duo Armand Grüntuch and Almut Grüntuch-Ernst in 1991.
      “Through sensitive interventions with deliberate openings, build-ups, superimpositions, relocations and penetrations, the existing structures were expanded, connected and reprogrammed.”
      The rooms occupy the prison’s former cellsVisitors enter the Wilmina via a bright lobby and journey deeper into the hotel through a sequence of courtyards, passages and rooms that become increasingly private.
      In the hotel proper, narrow galleries with wrought-iron balustrades are wrapped around a central atrium, leading to the guest rooms that were set up in the former prison cells.
      Windows were enlarged to offer views into the courtyardA lighting installation with glass pendants is suspended from the ceiling of the atrium to emphasise its height.
      Although no two guest rooms are exactly the same, all of them are finished in light colours, soft textures and warm, tactile materials to create a soothing ambience.

      EPR Architects transforms historic prison into NoMad London luxury hotel

      Where possible, the cells’ small high windows were enlarged to provide views into the main courtyard. But their prison bars remain intact to remind visitors of the building’s history.
      The new penthouse level features floor-to-ceiling windows that offer views down across the complex and its gardens. The new rooms are designed to be minimalist, clear and calm, with fine metal chain curtains that shimmer in the breeze.
      Minimalist bathrooms blend in with the larger interior schemeAt the centre of the site sits the hotel’s restaurant Lovis in an extension constructed using bricks that were removed elsewhere during the prison’s transformation.
      The eatery occupies the site of the former lock yard, its old gates now replaced with large windows providing views of a small enclosed garden with rare ferns, vines, climbing plants and an old birch tree.
      The hotel occupies a U-shaped red-brick cell block”The unique location and the detailed, sensitive transformation make the forgotten place a special experience in Berlin,” said Grüntuch Ernst Architects.
      “Wilmina is a place of discoveries, of surprising visual links, ambiguous layers of space and traces of the past. Wilmina is also a place of natural tranquillity, relaxation and comfort – an oasis in the middle of the city.”
      An extension formed from reclaimed bricks houses the Lovis restaurantMeanwhile in London, EPR Architects and interior design firm Roman and Williams recently transformed the former Bow Street Magistrates Court and Police Station in Covent Garden into the first overseas outpost from American hotel brand NoMad.
      The photography is by Patricia Parinejad.

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      Batek Architekten renovates historic cinema in pastel and earth-coloured hues

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      German studio Batek Architekten has refurbished Yorck Kino Passage, one of the oldest cinemas in Berlin, adding a foyer bar with pistachio-coloured arches and covering its screening rooms in saturated colours.

      The local studio wanted the renovation to pay respect to the original neoclassical style of the 1908 cinema, while still giving it a contemporary feel.
      Decorative arches nod to the arched windows in the building’s facadeThe basic structure of the foyer in the 325-square-metre cinema, which has decorative stucco elements, is the original, as are the staircases and large cinema hall. Other rooms had been renovated and refurbished over the years.
      Batek Architekten drew on the building’s large arched windows when designing the new foyer bar, which has pistachio-green arches that contrast against the original linoleum floor’s reddish-brown colour.
      A pale pistachio-green hue elegantly contrasts dark wood”The brown floor colour was specified due to monument protection and our resource-conservative approach,” Batek Architekten founder Patrick Batek told Dezeen.

      “This led to the general choice of earthy tones, but we chose the pistachio as a surprising addition.”
      Batek Architekten chose cork cladding for the cupboardsThe studio also added a natural cork covering to the cupboards in the foyer, which has a number of practical advantages.
      “The natural cork wall cladding was installed for acoustic reasons, it conceals the drinks storage and staff room spaces and allows for the hanging of posters and notices,” Batek explained.
      Velvet fabric in green hues decorate the foyerIn addition, existing materials were reused as part of the renovation. Corten-steel cladding from the cinema’s old bar was upcycled and reinstalled as panelling, edging and fitting elements of the new bar.
      The studio also restored Yorck Kino Passage’s brass light fittings and plaster moldings.

      Batek Architekten transforms Berlin arthouse cinema with saturated colours and neon lights

      As well as making interventions in the foyer, which now also features seating covered in forest-green and spring-green velvet fabric, Batek Architekten renovated two of the cinema’s smaller auditoriums.
      Here, the team added intense, deep colours that they felt were suitable for the ambience of the screening rooms, using blue for one and red for the other.
      A dark Prussian blue creates a dramatic auditorium”The auditoriums are in the basement of the building, and we wanted to create a more intimate atmosphere than in the original large lighter-coloured auditorium,” Batek said.
      “That’s why we clad it in dark Prussian blue fabric which contrasts nicely with the warm glow of the yellow-upholstered seating rows.”
      The studio added a deep red colour to the second screening roomA more traditional colour was chosen for the second room.
      “The other screening room is an interpretation of the classic cinema interior with a range of reds from rust to crimson covering walls and seating alike,” Batek explained.
      The studio also installed new podiums in the two auditoriums to create optimal visibility.
      One screening room nods to classic cinema interiorsBatek Architekten has a history of designing cinema interiors – having previously completed the Kino Delphi Lux cinema for the same client and refurbished the historic Blauer Stern cinema in Berlin.
      Among the studio’s other designs in the city is a duplex townhouse comprised of stacked cubes.
      The photography is by Marcus Wend.

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      Twelve Berlin architecture studios photographed by Marc Goodwin

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      British photographer Marc Goodwin has gone behind the scenes at 12 architecture studios in Berlin including Barkow Leibinger and Sauerbruch Hutton for the latest in his photography series exploring where architects work.

      Goodwin, who is the founder of studio Archmospheres, has documented architecture studios in cities across the world including Istanbul, Shanghai and São Paulo.
      Following a brief hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic, he is now continuing his global tour by visiting offices across Europe including those in the German capital.
      “We are working our way around Europe at the moment and Berlin is of course one of the major stops on that tour,” he told Dezeen.
      “The idea was to go there two years ago but a little something got in the way.”

      São Paulo studios of Brazilian architects including Paulo Mendes da Rocha captured in photos

      The Berlin series offers a glimpse inside 12 architecture studios including Barkow Leibinger, LAVA, Sauerbruch Hutton and Studio Karhard, the designer of the city’s renowned nightclub Berghain. The studios range in size from three employees to 140 members of staff and occupy a mix of purpose-built offices and adaptively reused buildings.
      Goodwin described the experience as “Vorsprung durch Technik” – referring to the famous slogan of German carmaker Audi, which translates as “progress through technology”.
      “There was little of the Bohemian Berlin of bygone days – that was what struck me most,” Goodwin explained.
      “It seemed a very professional place of work and I’ll be interested to compare it with upcoming shoots in Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.”
      Scroll down for a look inside 12 architecture studios in Berlin:

      Barkow Leibinger
      In this space since: 1997Number of members of staff: 80Building’s history: located at Schillerstraße 94 by Georg Lewy

      Bundschuh Architekten
      In this space since: 2007Number of members of staff: nineBuilding’s history: former counselling centre

      Christoph Hesse Architects (Berlin)
      In this space since: 2018Number of members of staff: threeBuilding’s history: old workshop

      FAR
      In this space since: 2019Number of members of staff: 10Building’s history: new build

      Graft
      In this space since: 2007Number of members of staff: 90Building’s history: former carburetor production facility

      Studio KarhardIn this space since: 2010Number of members of staff: nineBuilding’s history: residential

      Jasper
      In this space since: 2017Number of members of staff: 26Building’s history: office building

      JWA
      In this space since: 2018Number of members of staff: 27Building’s history: commercial building

      Kleihues
      In this space since: 1989Number of members of staff: 80Building’s history: former waste-loading station by Paul Baumgarten

      LAVA
      In this space since: 2021Number of members of staff: 29Building’s history: brewery and bottle store

      Richter Musikows
      In this space since: 2015Number of members of staff: eightBuilding’s history: new build

      Sauerbruch Hutton
      In this space since: 1991Number of members of staff: 140Building’s history: historic barracks

      Tchoban Voss (Berlin)
      In this space since: 1995Number of members of staff: total: 80Building’s history: located atHackesche Höfe complex by Kurt Berndt

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      Gisbert Pöppler designs Berlin apartment like a “tailor-made suit”

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      Architecture and interior design studio Gisbert Pöppler has overhauled an apartment in the heart of Berlin, adding a number of one-off furnishings and custom fixtures to suit the clients’ needs.

      The apartment, which was renovated from top to bottom, occupies a glass pavilion on the roof of a 1930s residential building in the borough of Mitte.
      Gisbert Pöppler has renovated a Berlin apartment and opened up its floor plan”In this project, our clients gave us a lot of freedom,” said Gisbert Pöppler, the studio’s eponymous founder. “That, however, does not mean that we imposed our design and taste on them.”
      “A good design is like a tailor-made suit,” he added. “It should fit perfectly without being the centre of attention.”
      Teak walls visually separate the study from the lacquered walls of the entrywayThe studio reorganised the floor plan so that the main bedroom, guest bedroom and bathroom are the only areas of the apartment that are completely closed off.

      Instead of walls, living spaces are now demarcated by different materials. In the study, surfaces are overlaid with teak while the entryway is panelled in red-lacquered wood.
      “The original plan was classic: hallway, room, room, room,” Pöppler explained. “We turned it into an open village.”
      The clients sourced the limestone used for the kitchen’s relief wallIn the kitchen, Gisbert Pöppler collaborated with the clients to design a simple geometric relief wall. This was crafted from a pale grey limestone that the owners sourced during a trip to Verona, Italy.
      The space is finished with an olive-green prep counter and mint-coloured cabinetry, both tailor-made to accommodate the owners’ selection of pots and pans.
      Bespoke storage cupboards hold the clients’ belongingsThe cane-inlaid storage cupboards that run throughout the apartment are also bespoke.
      Inside there are several shoe cubbies and shallow drawers, perfectly sized to hold the client’s array of shirts. The interior of the storage unit is lined with orange Formica, as the clients wanted it to be durable and easy to clean.

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      More unique details appear in the guest bathroom, which features a rounded washbasin made of white-glazed lava stone from Sicily’s Mount Etna. In contrast, dark oakwood was used to construct the basin’s base.
      The bathtub is set inside a deep wall niche clad in South American marble, with a dropped ceiling giving this space a cosier feel.
      A custom sink made from lava stone can be found in the guest bathroomThe ceiling in the living room was also lowered and covered with stainless steel panels.
      “One could assume that metal seems cool but it is the contrary,” Pöppler said. “The hazy reflections in the steel give the room a sense of height and have a comforting warmth to them.”
      Stainless steel lines the living room’s ceilingBespoke furnishings in the living room include the pentagonal white oak table in the breakfast nook and the formal wooden dining table, which Pöppler says has an “elaborately designed” underside.
      “We knew that the owner of the house often lies on the carpet listening to music, so we didn’t want him looking at a technical construction,” he said.
      The dining table was also made bespokeGisbert Pöppler isn’t the only studio to forgo off-the-shelf furnishings in its projects. Dutch practice i29 recently created a custom storage system for an Amsterdam apartment to accommodate the client’s extensive compilation of artworks and books.
      And in San Francisco, architect Jamie Bush filled a residence with an eclectic mix of custom furniture and vintage finds to make it look as if the owners had collected the pieces themselves.
      The photography is by Robert Rieger.

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