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      Hotel Rosalie encourages nature to “reclaim its rightful place in the urban landscape”

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      French interior designer Marion Mailaender has worked with hotelier Joris Bruneel to create a hotel in Paris informed by overgrown and abandoned buildings.

      Conceived as a hidden oasis in the city, Hotel Rosalie is set in a courtyard behind a tall iron gate on a tree-lined street in the 13th arrondissement.
      Marion Mailaender has designed nature-informed interiors for Hotel RosalieGreenery is incorporated into every aspect of Mailaender’s design for the 60-room hotel, including a plant-filled terrace and a hidden roof garden.
      Parisian urban gardening collective Merci Raymond was brought on board by Bruneel to make the hotel’s outdoor spaces seem “overgrown” and help nature “reclaim its rightful place in the urban landscape”.
      The hotel’s terrace features outdoor furniture by the Bouroullec brothersBruneel was particularly influenced by Urbex, a series of images by French photographer Romain Chancel that is displayed in the hotel’s guest rooms and depicts abandoned urban buildings that have slowly been reclaimed by plants.

      In a nod to this work, Merci Raymond encouraged lichen and moss to grow and seeds to germinate in the hotel’s nooks and crannies. Meanwhile, Mailaender incorporated urban design elements into the scheme ranging from “Roman-style statues” to an old Peugeot 205 car that is seemingly left abandoned on the rooftop.
      Mirrored yellow columns traverse the lobbyOn the ground floor, the hotel’s Open Garden is accessible to the local community and features steel outdoor furniture by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec set across a two-level terrace linked by a little staircase.
      A towering six-metre hop plant provides shade while its flowers will be used by a microbrewery in the 11th arrondissement to make beer.
      A Gae Aulenti sofa in the lobby is upholstered in clover-patterned fabricThe hotel’s Secret Garden lies behind a hidden door on the third floor. This is furnished with deck chairs, wooden benches and planters, offering a space where guests can read, relax in the sun, do yoga classes or participate in workshops organised by the hotel.
      Inside, Mailaender has included plenty of nature-inspired elements. In the lobby, a giant coconut-fibre rug leads guests inside while armchairs and couches by Italian architect Gae Aulenti are upholstered in clover-patterned pop art fabric.

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      Meanwhile, guest rooms feature galvanised steel furniture, which is typically used outdoors, and floral William Morris carpet that extends up from the floor and across the headboards.
      The interior blends new and reclaimed pieces in an approach that Mailaender describes as “intentional ambivalence”.
      In the bathrooms, for instance, traditional baths are paired with counters made from terrazzo-style recycled plastic.
      Floral William Morris carpet covers floors and headboards in the guest roomsAll materials were chosen for their aesthetic as well as their environmental impact, according to Mailaender.
      For example, the carpet in the guest rooms is made from recycled fishing nets and wood offcuts were used to make a marquetry tabletop in the lobby.
      Bathrooms feature counters made from recycled plasticCork clads the restaurant’s floor and the walls of the elevator, and many of the chairs are pre-owned pieces that were carefully restored.
      “I believe that we can mix furniture designed by the Bouroullec brothers with random pieces from a gardening catalogue,” explained Mailaender. “Embracing current concerns means selecting sustainable materials alongside aesthetically pleasing design pieces.”
      Planting surrounds an old Peugeot 205 in the hotel’s rooftop gardenThe hotel has its own coffee shop The Common, finished in a distinctive blue hue that nods to 90s air hostess uniforms.
      This colour is echoed on a glossy pillar in the bar, a trellis in the secret garden and on the guest room doors, where it offsets the grass-green carpet that winds through the hotel corridors.
      Dezeen recently rounded up ten verdant hotel interiors from our archive that show how adding greenery to public spaces can help give them a friendlier, more organic feel.
      The photography is by Christophe Coenon unless stated otherwise.

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      Artchimboldi Menorca is a work retreat inside an abandoned girls' school

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      Hospitality company Artchimboldi and Spanish architect Emma Martí have teamed up to transform a forgotten girls’ school in Menorca into a bright and contemporary retreat for professionals.

      Established by Anna Truyol in 2007, Artchimboldi provides design-focused spaces where businesses can host meetings or team-building sessions.
      Artchimboldi Menorca’s ground floor has a living and dining spaceThe company already has two locations – a pair of modernist apartments in Barcelona – but has now opened a third, larger site in Menorca that can be used for corporate retreats.
      “In designing Artchimboldi Menorca, I wanted to transfer everything I have been able to observe and witness from my experience of welcoming all kinds of companies to the spaces in Barcelona,” explained Truyol.
      “Menorca retains its authenticity, has a very close and accessible nature, and brings a very different rhythm than the city.”

      The central table can be rearranged to suit different work and dining set-upsArtchimboldi Menora occupies an old girls’ school in Sant Lluís, a quaint village in the southeast of the island.
      The school was constructed in 1900 but was eventually abandoned, leaving the interior in less-than-ideal condition. Truyol brought in Martí, a local architect, to carry out a revamp.
      Guests can write down ideas on a four-by-four metre slate boardAlthough the building’s roof had to be completely rebuilt, insulated and waterproofed, Truyol and Marti took a light touch with the rest of the renovation works in order to highlight “the history, experiences and soul of the space”.
      The building’s original marés stone walls were preserved and freshened up with a coat of white paint, and many of its timber ceiling beams were left in place.
      Seating poufs and a wood burner appear in the lounge areaAn airy living and dining area occupies the first floor. At its heart is a custom-made table made of lacquered wood, which can be easily reconfigured into different formats for group meals, meetings or workshops.
      Beyond the table is a cosy lounge that features amorphous grey seating poufs and a wood burner with a four-metre-high flue that accentuates the height of the room.

      The Olive Houses are off-grid retreats hidden in Mallorca’s mountains

      In a nod to the building’s past, Tyrol and Marti have also included a large antique bookcase and a schoolroom-style slate board, where guests can scribble down any thoughts and ideas.
      At the rear of the room, timber-framed doors lead out onto a gravel patio with a micro cement pool.
      The patio features a micro cement poolGuests can catch some rest on the building’s first level, which much like the ground floor has white-painted stone walls. But here, polished concrete flooring is replaced with bold chequerboard tiles.
      Pre-existing partition walls were knocked through to make way for a sequence of boxy Flanders-pine sleeping pods.
      Each one is fronted by a linen curtain that, when drawn back, reveals a comfy woollen futon.
      Flanders-pine sleeping pods were incorporated on the building’s first floorSlender black ladders grant access to the top of the pods, where guests can relax during the day. Alternatively, there is a small seating area dressed with a grey sofa and woven rugs.
      Personal belongings can be stored underneath the pods or in the bespoke sage-coloured shelving unit that sits at the room’s periphery.
      Additional sleeping pods can be found in the building’s loft.
      Ladders allow guests to sit and relax on top of the podsOther retreats on Spain’s picturesque Balearic islands include The Olive Houses, a pair of off-grid dwellings in Mallorca where architects, writers and artists can work uninterrupted.
      The two buildings are minimally finished and rendered with stucco that complements the surrounding olive trees.
      The photography is by Pol Viladoms.
      Project credits:
      Design: Anna Truyol and Emma Martí ArquitecturaTechnical architecture: Manel Alzina SintesDeveloper: ArtchimboldiConstruction company: Construcciones Virfin SLCarpentry: Biniarroca SLCollaborators: Cristina Pons (North Agent)

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      Yabu Pushelberg designs The Londoner hotel in the spirit of film and theatre

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      Design studio Yabu Pushelberg has completed a five-star hotel in London’s Leicester Square where rooms are all dedicated to different members of a theatre or movie production’s cast and crew.

      In tribute to its location, in the heart of the city’s theatre district, The Londoner is designed to echo the different sights, sounds and atmosphere you experience during a performance.
      The Londoner’s spaces are designed to reflect the cast and crew of a film or movieDramatic lighting, intricately painted scenography and architectural models all feature in an interior that celebrates the drama of cinema and theatre.
      George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, founders of New York- and Toronto-based Yabu Pushelberg, said the aim was to create a multi-layered experience over the building’s 16 floors.
      A drawing room featured murals depicting scenes of flora and faunaIt was this that led them to create different types of scene throughout the building, representing everyone from the scriptwriter and director, to the sound mixer and visual effects supervisor.

      “The Londoner is an homage to performance, with each public space representing a character of someone essential to bringing a production to life,” said Pushelberg.
      The centrepiece of the reception area is a moon-head created by artist Andrew Rae”It was important that we create a project that is an exuberant, joyful expression of not only the hotel’s location but its cultural context,” he continued.
      “We created layers of programming up into the sky and deep into the earth, which emphasise this extraverted, alluring, playful voice,” added Yabu.
      The lobby bar is imagined as a stageThe hotel reception pays tribute to the cinematographer with a room that aims to set the mood. Details include stage models and a metallic moon-head created by artist Andrew Rae.
      In homage to the director, the lobby bar takes the form of a stage with curtain-style fluted wall panels and a mirrored ceiling, while the restaurant next door is filled with black and white graphic portraits that represent the characters created by the scriptwriter.
      The Y Bar features backlit wooden panels, suggesting symbols and charactersThis floor also includes Joshua’s Tavern, a pub-style space that uses industrial overhead copper canisters, leather furniture and scenes by 18th-century portraiture artist Joshua Reynolds to allude to the gripsman, “the muscle on set”.
      The mezzanine features a series of spaces that celebrate visual effects: a drawing room framed by mural paintings, a jewellery-box-like whisky room and a lounge bar where wood-panelled are brought to life with artistic backlighting.

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      “The atmosphere is dynamic,” said Yabu. “We broke the public spaces into multiple, smaller interconnected spaces giving each area individual personalities whilst creating connectivity through one overall design narrative.”
      “Seduction was a key design device for us to draw visitors through the hotel, which is giant,” he explained.
      The Green Room features velvet furniture, marble mosaic flooring and a bar topped by gold megaphonesMore lounge spaces can be found on the upper and lower floors.
      The sound-mixer takes centre stage in a basement bar called The Green Room, where undulating walls and curvy velvet furniture create the impression of sound waves.
      The lower levels also include a pool and spa that takes cues from set design, a series of meetings rooms filled with props, and a golden-toned ballroom designed to suit the glitz and glamour promoted by the publicity agent.
      8 at The Londoner is a restaurant, bar and terrace designed to represent a production’s performersUpstairs, an eighth-floor restaurant, bar and terrace celebrates actors and performers. It includes a rope installation intended to reference bondage, as a way of suggesting the human bodies that take centre stage.
      The only place the drama softens is in the 350 bedroom suites, which were designed with a brighter and more minimal aesthetic.
      Bedrooms have a more pared-back aestheticThe Londoner is the latest in a series of high-profile hotels that Yabu Pushelberg has designed, following Las Alcobas Napa Valley in California, The Times Square Edition and Moxy Chelsea, both in New York.
      Pushelberg said The Londoner gave them an opportunity to push the boat out further than ever before.
      Joshua’s Tavern combines copper and leather with painted scenes from the 18th century”One of the things we cherish most about the Londoner is the incredible layer of styling we were able to apply to each and every space,” he said.
      “The Londoner served as a one-of-a-kind canvas to fully explore our stylistic creativity. From custom gramophones in the club, to playful oversized slices of fruit carved from colourful stone in the spa, this final styling layer is what really brings each space to life with an exceptionally unique personality and subsequently, experience.”
      The pool and spa pay tribute to set designThe designers hope that guests will notice the careful curated views and details as they move through the interior.
      “There is a sense of veiling and unveiling, so that one can take in and absorb all the details,” said Yabu.
      “There is a real feeling of discovery as you wander through all the chambers. Guests really get to choose their own journey.”

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      Fyra celebrates bohemian history of Helsinki's Hotel Torni in contemporary revamp

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      Finnish interiors studio Fyra has fostered a “bohemian ambience” in this hotel in Helsinki by layering different styles, colours and historical references within its public spaces.

      Hotel Torni was originally built in 1931 based on designs by architects Jung & Jung, with its 14 storeys making it the tallest building in Finland at the time.
      Fyra has overhauled Hotel Torni’s public spaces including its restaurant OROver the years, it became a base for spies during world war two and a favourite meeting place for artists, journalists and other cultural figures including Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and writers Mika Waltari and Frans Eemil Sillanpää.
      Now, Finnish architecture firm Arco has undertaken a complete renovation of the building for hotel chain Sokotel. Fyra was tasked with overhauling Hotel Torni’s public spaces including its lobby, restaurant and two bars, while local Studio Joanna Laajisto tackled the guest rooms.
      Playful wallpaper and B&B Italia’s Up 50 armchair feature in the lobby”The aim was to create surprising but elegant elements that respect the building’s original architecture and historic values,” said Fyra.

      “Although most of the building’s original art deco features had been removed over the years, the marble walls and floor in the entrance, a grand fireplace in the Cupola Room and a pair of doors in the restaurant were still intact.”
      The Ateljee bar stretches across floors 12 and 13″In our design, we did a modern interpretation of that era,” Fyra told Dezeen. “But we did use some typical features of art deco.”
      This includes coloured ceilings, tubular chrome furniture and graphic floor tiles, as well as bespoke light fixtures with glass orbs in the lobby.
      Reflective surfaces dominate the bar’s interior schemeThe historic Ateljee bar on the 13th floor offers views over Helsinki’s rooftops in four different directions and was originally only accessible via a narrow spiral staircase.
      But as part of the renovation, the bar was extended onto the 12th floor with its two levels connected by an elevator to improve accessibility and expand capacity.
      Fyra’s design team, led by Emma Keränen, Silja Kantokorpi and Eva-Marie Eriksson, furnished the space using reflective surfaces such as stainless steel counters so that the interior would maximise the panoramic views instead of competing with them.

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      Hotel Torni’s restaurant OR is located at street level. Here, the design team layered different styles of furniture, bold colours and artworks to create a “bohemian ambience” that would reflect the building’s history.
      Meanwhile, tubular steel chairs and sofas with upholstered leather seats nod to the building’s 1930s roots.
      The American bar is located under the hotel’s central domeThe American Bar was restored to its original location under the hotel’s central dome. At its heart sits a circular bar counter, atmospherically lit from above, that echoes the shape of the dome.
      For this space, the designers chose a palette of dark green and marble, complemented by lamps from Finnish industrial designer Paavo Tynell.
      Original details such as marble fireplace mantels were retainedFounded in 2010, Fyra specialises in designing work environments, hotels, restaurants and retail spaces such as this stylised bright-pink parcel collection point in Helsinki.
      Last year, the studio was named interior design studio of the year at the Dezeen Awards.
      The photography is by Riikka Kantinkoski.

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      Philippe Starck draws on mid-century modernism for Saint-Tropez hotel

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      French architect and designer Philippe Starck used warm tones and modernist references in his renovation of Villa W, a boutique wellness hotel on the coast of Saint-Tropez.

      Created as a little sister to the existing Starck-designed Lily of the Valley hotel which is located nearby, Villa W is a fitness and wellness hotel located in an existing villa that was renovated by Starck.
      Villa W is a hotel in Saint-Tropez designed by Philippe StarckThe 1,559-square-metre villa, which is situated on the southwestern corner of the peninsula in the French Riviera town, was designed as “a romantic hideaway” where guests can relax as well as work on their fitness and health.
      “We’ve all dreamed of a little cabin, chalet or fisherman’s hut by the sea,” Philippe Starck said. “We don’t have to dream anymore, because we’ve made that dream a reality – a romantic hideaway nestled in a pine forest that looks down onto the Mediterranean at La Croix-Valmer.”
      It has a 17-metre-long swimming pool along the frontSet over two floors, the boutique hotel has three double rooms and can cater to up to six guests at a time. Each bedroom has its own private terrace with views of the surrounding lush landscape and the Mediterranean sea.

      During the renovation process, Starck decided to emphasise the original architectural features of the villa. It was built in the 1960s by a local architect called Jean Nielly.
      The interior is dominated by brown and beige coloursMade from vast sheets of glass, concrete and steel, the villa already had unparalleled views onto its surroundings. In a bid to celebrate this, Starck focused on drawing attention to the length of the villa, adding arbours made from chestnut wood along its long, south-facing glass facade.
      Large French doors set in aluminium frames allow plenty of natural light to brighten up the interiors and merge them with the exterior, while a decked terrace that wraps around the edges of the building has a private 17-metre-long pool.
      There are six double bedrooms on the second floor”Villa W boasts views that have remained unchanged for hundreds of years,” said owner of Lily of the Valley Lucie Weill. “So, when we were designing it, we felt it was essential to keep this unique, panoramic view of the Mediterranean.”
      “That’s why we placed so much importance on the length of the villa so that guests would be able to see the sea from every room,” Weill told Dezeen.
      “The effect is quite something: instead of feeling like a building nestled against the hillside, Villa W feels more like a boat moored on the coast.”

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      Inside, Starck Starck drew on the mid-century modern style found in Charles and Ray Eames’ home in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighbourhood for Villa W.
      Guests enter the hotel through a main lobby and reception area where tan leather sofas, wooden ornaments and rust-coloured rugs can be found.
      Off to one side of the lobby is the terrace area with rattan seating, while a bar at the back of the space serves what the hotel calls “a healthy Mediterranean gastronomy.”
      Extra touches of warmth are provided by the wooden flooring and soft furnishings.
      Starck sourced vintage furniture for the roomsThe warm colour palette is continued upstairs in the hotel’s bedrooms where vintage items sourced by Starck, such as a brown Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen and wooden Walnut Stools designed by Charles and Ray Eames, can be found.
      The three bathrooms have a cleaner, lighter aesthetic with marble floors and floor-to-ceiling mirrors, which the designer incorporated to emphasise the omnipresence of the Mediterranean.
      Each room has views of the Mediterranean seaStarck is one of the most prolific designers in the world. Although is best known for his product designs such as the Icon Chair and Juicy Salif citrus squeezer, he has also produced a number of notable interior projects.
      These include renovating the interior of the Quadri restaurant in Venice. Earlier this year, he led the art direction for Villa M, a hotel in Paris covered in plants.
      Photography is by Novembre Studio.

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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.

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      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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      Holloway Li transforms Munich office building into Wunderlocke hotel

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      Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract paintings influenced the colourful yet understated interiors that design studio Holloway Li has created inside the Locke hotel in Munich.

      The aparthotel, called Wunderlocke, contains 360 serviced studio apartments and is situated in Munich’s Obersendling district, taking over an office building that previously belonged to German tech company Siemens.
      A timber desk anchors Wunderlocke’s receptionLondon-based Holloway Li aimed to celebrate the building’s raw structure and reveal its “inner voice”, avoiding a more traditional “material intensive” approach to retrofitting.
      This decision was chiefly informed by the work of 20th-century Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky – a pioneer of abstract art who spent a significant portion of his career in Munich.
      Adjacent to the reception is a co-working area”Kandinsky’s work explores how we can develop a closer relationship to nature through abstraction, rather than through more figurative approaches favoured at the time,” explained Holloway Li.

      “He believed that by connecting with the ‘innerer klang’ (inner voice) of things, an artist could reveal the natural essence of objects and materials.”
      Teal-coloured leather runs around the edge of the bar counterIn line with this idea, the studio stripped back the building to its concrete shell and added a carefully curated selection of furnishings using natural colours and materials where possible.
      At the heart of the ground-floor reception is a curved timber desk inset with panels of wheat-coloured carpet, which were also used to wrap the lower half of the room’s structural columns.
      Yellow and red furnishings bring a burst of colour to the barBeyond the reception is an informal co-working area dressed with plush sea-green sofas and communal timber desks.
      Holloway Li placed leafy potted plants around the periphery of the room and along the trellis-style shelves, creating the impression that the nearby Grünwald forest has “grown into and occupied” the interior.

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      This floor of the Wunderlocke hotel also houses a drinks bar, with the lip of its countertop upholstered in supple teal-coloured leather to encourage guests to get comfortable and hang around for longer.
      Mustard-yellow tub chairs and a red seating banquette provide extra pops of colour.
      The building’s terrazzo staircase dates back to the 1960sThe upper floors of the hotel can be reached via a terrazzo staircase, which dates back to the 1960s but was updated with a stainless steel handrail.
      Painted in natural blue and green hues, each guest suite is designed to function as a small studio apartment with its own lounge area and kitchenette.
      Guest suites are decked out in shades of blue and greenIf guests don’t want to cook in their room, they have the option of eating at Mural Farmhouse – a group of five food and drinks venues spread across seven floors of the Wunderlocke building.
      Run by the founders of Munich’s Michelin-starred restaurant Mural, the complex encompasses an all-day restaurant, a wine bar, cocktail bar, coffee shop and an upscale eatery.
      All of the venues follow a farm-to-table ethos, making use of hand-picked herbs and vegetables from the hotel’s rooftop farm, which offers views over the Bavarian Alps.
      Each suite comes complete with a lounge and kitchenetteWunderlocke is the second Munich outpost from British aparthotel chain Locke. The first, called Schwan Locke, pays homage to early German modernism and features a colour palette informed by the work of Mies van der Rohe.
      Holloway Li was previously tasked with designing Locke’s location in the London district of Bermondsey, which evokes sunny California deserts.
      The photography is by Ed Dabney.

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      Arco Suites is a cliffside hotel in Crete with rooms carved out of the rock

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      Cave-like suites and a yoga studio with an arching bamboo roof feature inside this wellness hotel on the Greek island of Crete, which local hoteliers Danae and Konstantina Orfanake have perched on a rocky precipice above the sea.

      The Orfanake sisters spent almost five years designing and developing the Arco Suites resort together with Athenian architecture office Utopia Hotel Design and interior designer Manos Kipritidis.
      Arco Suites is set on a cliffside in Crete’s Mononaftis bayThe complex accommodates 49 suites and villas in buildings constructed from locally sourced stone and wood, which were designed to blend into their surroundings along Crete’s Mononaftis bay.
      Some of the stone was excavated directly on-site while the rest was sourced from Mount Ida, the highest mountain on the island.
      The hotel overlooks the Aegean SeaEach of the hotel’s suites has its own private saltwater pool with views of the Aegean Sea and interiors finished in a palette of natural materials.

      This ranges from raw silk bed covers to furnishings custom-made by local artisans using marble from nearby Feistos.
      The hotel’s Cave Suites are carved out of the cliffsideSome of the suites were carved directly out of the cliffside, with parts of the rockface left exposed around the pool terraces and throughout the interiors to preserve their cave-like feel.
      The stone walls also help to maintain a pleasant temperature all year round, reducing the need for heating and air conditioning.
      The hotel’s external stone walls were crafted by Cretan sculptors, as were the custom-made clay light fixtures in the Cave Suites.
      A thatched roof covers the Circle BarKipritidis worked closely with the Orfanake sisters on the design of the hotel’s Cremnos restaurant and the Circle cocktail bar.
      Echoing the natural look of the suites, the restaurant is furnished with custom-made marble furniture, natural fabrics and copper and wood details.

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      The Circle bar features a ceiling made from Makuti – a type of East African thatching that consists of sun-dried coconut palm leaves.
      This natural material provides shade and sways in the breeze, creating a relaxing atmosphere.
      The spa area combines wooden joinery with rough stone surfacesUtopia Hotel Design was brought in to help with the design of the in-house spa, which features an oval layout and smooth stone surfaces contrasted against roughly hewn walls and wooden doors.
      The wellness area houses a Byzantine hammam, a Finnish sauna, two treatment rooms, an outdoor pool and a heated pool.
      The spa contains an outdoor poolThe hotel’s Asana yoga studio is covered by an impressive arching roof that was custom made in Crete using wood and bamboo from Thailand.
      Danae and Konstantina Orfanake are members of a prominent Cretan hotelier family. Arco Suites is the latest addition to their growing portfolio of resorts on the island.
      The hotel’s yoga studio has an arching bamboo roofA number of other design studios have explored the idea of embedding buildings into the rugged topography of the Greek islands.
      KRAK Architects recently developed a concept for an underground house with an infinity pool on Crete’s south coast. And on Mykonos, Kyriakos Tsolakis Architects has blended a wellness hotel into the surrounding hillside using stones excavated on-site.
      The photography is by Giorgos Sfakianakis.

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