The Shortlist of Best Urban Hotels 2018 has been announced this week with 14 European finalists. The winners will be announced only in December 2018 meanwhile Design Contract lead the way and show you the hotels that figure in the European Shortlist.
The French finalists
Hotel National des Arts et Métiers hotel – Paris, France
Designed by Raphael Navot the Hotel National des Arts has 70-room. To wit, a natural palette of black marble, untreated timber, and oxidized copper set the scene for one-off pieces such as hand-painted raw linen panels by artist Gael Davrinche and Jars’ ceramic tableware.
The Hoxton Hotel – Paris, France
Monaco-based Humbert & Poyet have designed the 172 guestrooms with local accents such as Jean Prouvé furniture, while the outdoor patio, speakeasy bar, and Rivié brasserie have been kitted out by London-based Soho House group with its signature shabby chic aesthetic.
To complete the list Design Contract what to invite you to know another French finalist this time in a Renovation category- Best Urban Hotel Renovation 2018 – Hotel de Crillon Paris.
The Denmark finalists
Hotel Sanders
The Hotel Sanders is the city’s very first luxury boutique hotel. With 54-room Sanders figures as a center stage in Copenhagen’s hospitality area. Designed by Pernille Lind and Richy Almond of London studio Lind + Almond. This style amalgamate comes into its own in the rooms, where bespoke wooden furniture, leather-upholstered armchairs, rattan cane-couches, and brass fittings make for a comfy and stylish stay.
The Nobis Hotel
Behind the walls of the classicist façade, the 77-room Nobis Hotel Copenhagen occupies one of the capital’s first concrete landmarks. Designed by Swedish architect Gert Wingårdh, the high-ceilinged rooms are clad in a palette of Carrara marble, timber, glass, and parquet flooring with subtle green and blue accents.
Custom-designed dressers and desks bridge the modernist and classicist style with curvatures that nod to the building’s original window arches. Superior and Deluxe rooms feature iconic Scandinavian design pieces including Carl Hansen & Son’s CH25 chair.
The German finalists
Roomers hotel – Munich
Designed by the Amsterdam-based design studio Concrete that has created a cosy lounge lobby with a curved central bar – that pulls double duty as a check-in desk – muted leather sofas, modern mid-century-style chairs, marble coffee tables, dramatic pendant lighting and lots of knick-knacks, such as self-service sweet jars, that are revealed in an avocado palette with brass accents.
The Fontenay hotel – Hamburg
Designed by the Berlin-based interior designer Christian Meinert has painted in natural shades of beige, green onyx, turquoise, and blues. The oak wood floors are laid with rugs woven by The House of Tai Ping, while surfaces pop with objects by George Jensen and original art by the Peruvian painter Antonio Maro.
The Italy Finalist
Asumundo di Gisira Hotel – Sicily
Converted from an 18th-century noble residence, Ragusa-based Studio GUM spent seven years on the restoration of the 400 sqm compound, just steps away from the landmark Fontana dell’Elefante.
The public area celebrates the myth of Billonia with Sergio Fiorentino’s painting of the goddess and an enormous flamingo sculpture by Domenico Pellegrino; the Proserpina suite, one of the six generously spaced guest quarters, features hand-painted tiles by ceramist Alessandro Iudici.
The Poland Finalists
Hotel Indigo – Nowy Swiat hotel – Warsaw
Hotel Indigo is a 60-room property housed in an ornamental 1903 building, once the residence of count Ksawery Branicki. Warsaw-based design agency 2kul worked with Henry Reeve, IHG’s director of design and innovation, to create a modern space that sits quietly within its original surroundings.
The lobby is dressed with colorful classics including Fritz Hansen armchairs, Tom Dixontables, low-slung sofas by Paolo Castelli and a rich, carpet designed by Marcel Wanders for Dutch interior brand, Moooi.
Puro Hotel – Gdansk
The 220-room hotel is a new build by local practice KD Kozikowski Design, whose lofty interiors by London-based DeSallesFlint recall the area’s historic grain warehouses and shipyard.
An airy eight-story atrium leads into soft-pastel spaces furnished with quirky modernist pieces by Vitra, Moroso, and Gubi, while the rooftop bar and terrace open out over the marina and Old Town.
The Portugal Finalist
Verride Palácio Santa Catarina hotel – Lisbon
Located in Lisbon’s hipster Chiado quarter, the handsome four-story building with views of the Tagus have been restoring by architect Teresa Nunes da Ponte.
In the main, this has meant meticulously restoring the intricate moldings, the wrought iron internal staircase, ornamental ceilings, the Portuguese and Greek marble in the public spaces and, in some of the suites, the original blue, and white Azulejo tiles.
The Spain Finalist
Almanac hotel – Barcelona
Local studio Office of Architecture has joined two 18th- and 20th-century buildings into a 91-room cocoon which, in turn, Jaime Beriestain Studio has layered with spacious white marble bathrooms, copper accents, low-hanging white drum lamps, and panels of oak and walnut in the bright bedrooms – some of which feature broad bay windows, cleverly converted from the building’s old Juliet balconies.
The United Kindom Finalists
Eden Locke hotel – Edinburgh
Occupying a listed Georgian property in the heart of Edinburgh, Eden Locke, a hotel that lives like an apartment, presents itself as a design-led Airbnb-like experience.
Designed by New York architects Grzywinski and Pons have transformed period interiors with a lavish palette of sorbet-soft pastels and splashes of bold color, bringing a touch of the tropics (and the 1980s) to the louring Athens of the North.
The Mandrake Hotel – London
Interior designer Tala Fustok’s creativity literally runs through the walls of the hotel. Dark, moody and draped in sumptuous fabrics, with art-filled walls and eclectic (even eccentric) design pieces, it practically swings from the chandeliers. But then The Mandrake is designed as a sensual overload, cocooning guests in fragrance and sound.
The Principal Hotel – London
Designers Tara Bernerd and Russell Sage have modernized the 334-room hotel, now renamed The Principal, with a dose of creamy drapery, tufted fabric, and artwork that is meant to evoke the neighborhood’s Bloomsbury artistic and literary heritage.
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