Photo: Rafael Varges

Hotel Puerta America

Madrid / Spain / 2003-2005

Level 7 of a luxury designer hotel 

Client: Grupo Urvasco, Silken Hotels

Net Area: 1,200 m2 

Photo: Rafael Vargas 

Design of 30 rooms on the 7th floor of a new build hotel project by Silken Hotels. The hotel development comprises 14 floors in total and 14 designers have been commissioned to design one floor each. The rooms are innovative open space divided by a central wall which contains all the facilities (bed, bathroom, dressing area and desk).

Photo: Rafael Vargas  

Lobby and Hallway: Ron Arad’s rounded, sinuous shapes can be glimpsed in the lobby, which boasts a circular sofa made of reflective fibreglass, foam and Alcantara in anthracite grey. On the walls are large LCD screens where different images can be viewed. The floor of both areas is made of elastic resin, and the ceiling curves downwards, seeming to swoop over the guest, although in reality it manages to creative a cosier, more modern space.

Photo: Rafael Vargas  

Rooms: Ron Arad suggests a concept of room in which bulbous, rounded shapes characteristic of his way of designing prevail. A curved, continuous wall, white in some rooms and bright red in others, acts as a central divider separating the different uses of the space. Ron Arad creates a circuit in which guests gradually discover each of the spaces: first the entryway, then the bed, then the bathroom, the sink, the toilet. Everything bit by bit. The round bed is by the Italian design firm Capellini and is placed towards the back of the room. It is highly provocative but comfortable.

In the bathroom, each space is made independent of the next by means of a wall divider. Despite the continuity, the logical independence is not forsaken. The shower and toilet have stainless steel ceilings. Arad seamlessly blends both materials, achieving an extremely modern space with a touch of high technology. Across is a huge swath of glass, which in the case of the toilet not only provides a distorted reflection of the guest, but also visually enlarges the space. The chairs at the desk are Fantastic Plastic Elastic designed by Arad for the firm Kartell, also sinuous and suggestive. Their lightness entices the guest to sink into them, to submerge himself in a different design concept. The guest moves about the space continually surprised, as if attempting tofind new shapes in every corner.