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    Grzywinski+Pons designs Locke at East Side Gallery to “capture the strange magic” of Berlin

    Glass screen doors, bespoke furniture and natural textures draw on the waterside location of Locke at East Side Gallery hotel in Berlin by architecture studio Grzywinski+Pons.

    Located in the inner-city Friedrichshain district, Locke at East Side Gallery contains 176 studio apartments equipped with kitchenettes and living areas, for short stay through to longer tenancies as part of the Locke group’s “home-to-hotel” format.
    Rooms at Locke at East Side Gallery feature sliding doors with bespoke glass panelsFor the interiors, Matt Grzywinski of Grzywinski+Pons told Dezeen he wanted “the look and feel to be expressive and aspirational, but also comfortable and even quietly nurturing”.
    “I wanted to see if it could be exciting and calming all at once,” he said.
    Raw concrete walls catch the grazing light from the River SpreeThis dualism is reflected in the location of the hotel which, in one direction, faces the River Spree and overgrown riverfront lots on the opposite bank in Kreuzberg. The other side of the building, facing onto a busy road, looks out to the Mediaspree skyline of offices and hotels.

    The interior design takes its cues from the building’s microlocality. Bespoke kiln glass was made for glass panels in the rooms, which have the same character as the surface of the River Spree in grazing light. Most suites have private balconies with river or skyline views.
    “The Spree is a pretty placid river, and the light reflecting off of its gently textured surface is a major component of the views from the hotel,” Grzywinski told Dezeen.
    Rattan screens separate sleeping and living areasRaw concrete walls echo the remains of the Berlin Wall, which are directly in front of the hotel on the Friedrichshain side.
    “I try to employ texture to provide comfort and warmth in spaces or, conversely, contrast that with sleek or glossy surfaces,” the designer said.
    Calming colours and textures contrast with pops of colourIn the rooms, the palette of wood, concrete and textured glass was enlivened with pastel coloured soft furnishings, including turmeric chairs, pastel mirrors, braided grass rugs, suede and rattan headboards and screens.
    “Colour for me is intuitive,” Grzywinski explained. “Blush, mint, buff – powdery tones that I thought were a nice foil to the largely neutral and monochromatic, even industrial, context.”
    Jacques Biny bedside wall lights were incorporated into custom suede and rattan headboardsGrzywinski+Pons designed the majority of the furniture for the rooms, but also specified lighting and some other pieces including Jacques Biny bedside wall lights, which were integrated into custom bedheads, and BRDR Krueger chairs to complement the studio’s dining tables.
    The ground floor features complimentary co-working area for guests and locals, including a coffee shop and audiophile bar, as well as the Anima restaurant.
    Intended as a dedicated space for music lovers, the eating, drinking, listening concept of Anima was informed by Japan’s “kissaten” hi-fi cafes, which preceded affordable home stereos.
    ANIMA is an audiophile bar focussed on musicThe restaurant said they hope to help guests “connect to music and one another in a warm setting”.
    The social spaces on the ground floor resemble a gallery space that is used for art exhibitions and community events.
    Greenery in brick planters soften the concrete industrial spaceBuilt-in seating and planters were fabricated from locally-sourced bricks comprised of recycled sand and lime. Furnishings echo the wider design treatment in a palette of timber, cane, fabric and cord.
    “As furnishings and installations get closer to the touch level, I introduced colour and texture that hopefully was harmonious, and in contrast to the otherwise raw public spaces,” Grzywinski said.

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

    “The wall curtains literally transition from grey to blush with an ombre print,” he continued.
    “I wanted the hotel to capture some of that strange magic Berlin has, where you can feel like you are in the centre of a vast and dynamic avant-garde metropolis, which simultaneously presents like a tranquil retreat.”
    Curtains in the lobby feature a subtle ombre fade from grey to blushSince its first location opened in 2016, Locke has expanded to include 14 sites across the UK and mainland Europe, with Zurich, Copenhagen, Lisbon and Paris locations due to open in the next year.
    Other hotels recently featured on Dezeen include The Hoxton Charlottenburg by AIME Studios in Berlin and Cowley Manor Experimental in the Cotswolds, UK, designed by Dorothée Meilichzon.
    Photography is by Nicholas Worley.

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    Ember Locke hotel channels Kensington’s decadent heyday

    Warm saturated colours and maximalist touches are combined inside Locke Hotels’ latest outpost in west London, designed by local studios Atelier Ochre and House of Dré.

    Occupying an imposing Victorian mansion block in Kensington, the Ember Locke hotel was designed as a homage to some of the area’s historic architecture.
    Atelier Ochre and House of Dré have designed the Ember Locke hotelAmong the references brought in by the designers were the art deco Kensington Roof Gardens and the now-defunct Biba department store, which rose to popularity in the Swinging Sixties.
    “We wanted to create interiors that are an extension and interpretation of the neighbourhood, a space that reflects the cultural heritage of Kensington but also somewhere that shows the area’s evolution over time,” Atelier Ochre founder Pauline Dellemotte told Dezeen.
    “We wanted to delve into the world of bold patterns, rich colours, eclectic furniture and art deco details, to tap into the sense of opulence that once dominated the Kensington scene.”

    The hotel accommodates 121 serviced apartmentsInstead of traditional guest rooms, Ember Locke accommodates 121 serviced apartments over eight floors, alongside a bakery, restaurant and conservatory cocktail bar, a stage for live performances, a co-working space, a gym and a garden.
    Its interiors were designed to offer a contrast to the hotel’s location on bustling Cromwell Road – home to three of London’s most important museums including the V&A and the Natural History Museum.
    Velvet banquettes in the rooms are trimmed with ultra-long fringingThe building’s original arch-topped windows are mirrored in the arches and curves found in each room, from tubular-backed banquettes and chairs to the sculptural meandering clothes rail of the deconstructed wardrobe.
    “The curved edges of the banquette, the rotating mirror and the wardrobe rail are attempts to combine the unlikely trio of playfulness, comfort and practicality,” said House of Dré founder Andreas Christodoulou.
    “We’ve introduced some bold furniture and sculptural objects to spark a sense of curiosity and playfulness, and to allow guests to interact and reflect themselves within the space,” Dellemotte added.
    Each apartment also has a small kitchenetteThe velvet banquettes are trimmed with ultra-long fringing, echoed by the fringed pendant lights that hang low above the circular table in each room to zone the seating area.
    Brass detailing across coat hooks, wall lights and clothes rails adds to the sense of opulent modernity.

    Fettle designs Schwan Locke Hotel in homage to early German modernism

    An intense colour palette, which layers red, orange and mustard tones, is offset by the deep green of the apartment kitchenettes, highlighting the more practical nature of this area.
    “With the fringing and warm earthy colours, the rooms flirt with maximalism but still possess the calm and contemporary sophistication that one would expect from a Locke hotel,” said Christodoulou.
    The bed is separated from the kitchen via a cotton curtainHeavy recycled-cotton curtains in a claret colour, custom-created by London textile company Yarn Collective, track around the walls and create a flexible room divider, separating the bed and kitchen areas when needed.
    Many of the communal spaces feature art by local and up-and-coming artists alongside specially created works by House of Dré.
    Striped shower curtains jazz up the bathroomsThe project was a close creative collaboration between Dellemotte and Christodoulou.
    “We are old friends who met at a previous practice,” said Dellemotte. “Our friendship grew to include exciting collaborations across hospitality projects, where we combined our passions for design and art.”
    “At Ember Locke, we’ve been given the opportunity to blend the interior aesthetics and art curation of the spaces with the overall branding of the hotel in a holistic way.”
    Surfaces are finished in a salmony peach colourLocke Hotels already has a number of other outposts in London. Among them is one in Bermondsey – with interiors designed by Holloway Li to echo sunny California deserts – and one near St Paul’s Cathedral that is housed in a converted 1970s office block.
    The photography is by Kensington Leverne

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    Holloway Li transforms Munich office building into Wunderlocke hotel

    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.

    Fettle designs Schwan Locke Hotel in homage to early German modernism

    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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