In a city known for its ancient past, the Semiramis is a hotel of the future. Facing a tranquil green park in the Kifissia area of north Athens, the hotel is the creation of designer, Karim Rashid, well-known for his fluid, soft style that mingles rounded forms with bright, lively colours.

The Semiramis is no exception to this; all its 51 guestrooms and public areas carry Rashid’s distinctive signature. Light pinks and greens, oranges and subtle yellows are reproduced in walls, floors, furnishings and fittings for an energetic atmosphere. Frosted-glass bathrooms make for extra space and daylight. Balconies and verandas offer pool or park views. To help the Semiramis’ global guests stay in touch with the world or the office – internet TVs complete with cordless keyboards come as standard.For more local interaction, guests can check out the hotel’s two-level restaurant and bar, where the modern Greek, European and international flavours of the menu are mirrored in the cosmopolitan blend that make up the Semiramis’ clientele.

Commissioned by art patron Dakis Joannou, the new hotel in the leafy Athens suburb of Kiffisia, is entirely the creation of Karim Rashid. The Egyptian-British industrial designer’s mark is on everything from the slippers under the bed to the place mats on his organically curved tables. Guests entering through the glowing pink glass cube into a lobby, that features a rotating collection of fine art including works by Tim Noble and Sue Webster or Jeff Koons on loan from international art galleries, know they are in store for something radically different than the city’s classic architecture.

Bold colour schemes and Rashid’s signature furniture, including his Wavelength Sofa and Swing Chair and not forgetting his bank of black sofas shaped like pouting lips in the lobby, give this hotel its distinct look. Juicy pinks, oranges, greens and yellows make up the hotel’s energising colour scheme, tinting everything from lobby couches to transparent glass partitions in the rooms. A lively lighting concept has been especially commissioned from Focus Lighting in New York under the direction of principal designer Paul Gregory.

Semiramis’ guestrooms, suites and poolside bungalows offer both the use of creative materials (like the opaque glass bathroom wall) and playful design, such as the light-box art installations behind each bed.

The designer takes an innovative approach in mixing textures and materials: coloured concrete with rubber floors, for example, or ceramic tiles with metal and epoxy with dark wood. Innovative technology is also a given in Rashid’s 21st century concept. For example, traditional “Do Not Disturb” or “Make Up This Room” signs have been replaced with electronic message boards. Guests can type in personalised messages from the in-room keyboard – Rashid suggests, “Hello, I’m single. Please come in.”

Source : Semiramis Hotel, Design Hotels

The Legian and its new sister, Bali’s most exclusive location, The Club at The Legian, is an exclusive all-suite hotel set in landscaped tropical gardens, offering unrivalled views across the Indian Ocean. Flanked by a quiet Seminyak Beach, this deluxe property offers a unique chance to experience the magical island of Bali in a relaxing setting. The hotel’s individual style is inspired by Bali’s rich culture, artistic tradition and fine craftsmanship.

Set in idyllic grounds of landscaped tropical gardens, The Legian offers high-end luxury in suites and villas that never lose sight of their traditional roots. Smooth marble floors and intricate Indonesian sculptures and other indigenous artworks greet visitors in an impressive lobby of dark wood and kept in a classic design. Local craftsmanship is on display in The Legian’s peaked roofs and bare wooden columns and rafters.

In the suites, Ibrahim has created oases of elegance, featuring mahogany parquet floors, sweeping views of the coast and local Indonesian art on display. Even more loving care and attention is devoted to The Legian¹s eleven villas, each with their own pool.

Four-poster beds and outdoor bathtubs surrounded by nothing but lush landscapes are the villa’s highlights, which artfully continue the design theme of marble and wood already established in the lobby. Ibrahim’s high-end concept, including his bespoke furnishings, match the resort¹s lavish seaside location perfectly and succeeds in ensuring that The Legian lives up to the promise of timeless elegance.

Source : Design Hotels

The Kube is dominated by one particular geometric shape in its interior design. Designers Raymond Morel and Christiane Derory have given the U-shaped building, located in a quiet street in Paris’s bubbling 18th arrondissement, a truly mind-bending revamp.

In addition to, obviously, lots of cubes, the themes of coolness and transparency, which are emphasised throughout the public spaces are offset by the warming sense of privacy and comfort that pervades the guestrooms. The courtyard of the revamped 19th century building features a see-through cube, which contains the necessary reception facilities in a suitable way.

Sashaying into the stylish bar, which serves as the heart of the hotel, you’ll find yourself transported to a rather futuristic space, complete with generously high ceilings, lots of stainless-steel gratings, floor-to-ceiling curtains and a long counter in tarnished silver to lean against and get your wits back about you. Cubic seats and lounge chairs accented in fur set off the black glass of the walls, which are animated in turn by a whole row of plasma-screen televisions.

Bars play a pivotal role in the hotel’s concept so you’ll find the “Ice Kube” bar on the mezzanine – held at a constant temperature of only minus 5°C, it is a whole universe entirely made out of 25 tons of ice. Once you take off the polar coat provided for the ice bar, you may well feel like heating things up again while swinging in Eero Aarnio’s 1968 ‘Bubble Chairs’ suspended in mid-air.

Oozing a sleek iciness in its public spaces, the 31 guestrooms and 10 suites of the hotel turn the heat up a little with warm touches added to the arctic-geometric theme. Black and white faux-fur curtains give the space a definite cuddly feel whilst readily living up to the chic provided by the pastel-coloured furniture by Raymond Morel in tarnished glass. Spinning the crystalline look further in the bathrooms, Philippe Starck’s aptly named ‘Jelly Cubes’ collection for Duravit of rectangular elements sits squarely with specially made glass cube showers made from matt the high-tech material Corian.

Source : Design Hotels

The duoMo hotel has long been a fixture in the historic heart of Rimini, one of Italy’s long-standing and established seaside resorts. Untouched for many years until the owners decided to bring celebrated architect Ron Arad and his team into the picture in 2003, resulting in a unique and exciting transformation. The main concept revolved around the need to embrace the past while simultaneously creating space for a thorough look into the future. This need for dynamism, design and creativity resulted in a unique identity in design, where subtle contrasts, light, shadow and transparencies were infused into the existing building, thus giving birth to the new hotel.

The hotel entrance is through giant pin-ball-flipper doors, framing the view to the reception area, which inevitably becomes the focal point of the hotel. The front desk is an oversized circular stainless steel structure, dramatically leaning at an angle, looking like a large inclined wedding ring dancing on a plate. Shelves are built into this ring defining the horizontal topography of the desk. The wall behind the reception is formed by a series of aluminium fin-shapes, allowing natural daylight to flood the space while affording an edited view of the offices located behind it. Although ultra-futuristic in its design, the entrance area exudes a bouncy lightness. The intrepid original features, daring colours and adventurous shapes inevitably make a big impact, setting a distinctive tone for the duration of the guest’s stay.

The much-hyped noMi club is a large island with fjord-like scoops spreading outwards from the main structure to provide guests with surfaces to sit at. The surface of the bar top is made of brushed steel and its sides are finished in mirrored polished steel, creating distorted reflections of the people and the surrounding environment. On balmy summer nights, cleverly retractable glass walls allow for the activity in the bar to be taken outside onto the streets of Rimini’s lively historical centre. World renowned DJs are invited on a regular basis to entertain guests and locals and the Sunday beach parties promoted by the hotel already feature high on the agenda of the in-crowd. Unconventional and exciting design is also present in the private champagne room. It has been set up in an exclusive atmosphere for guests to indulge in after a long day of work or leisure.

Arad’s audacious design philosophy is reflected throughout the rooms as well. Individually formed bathroom pods create the backdrop to the sleeping area. Each pod is a wet room with teak slatted timber flooring and a large circular glazed window, which allows natural light into the space. The exterior of this uniquely designed structure forms the bed head. Arad has played with visual provocations, experimenting with basic spatial perceptions while maintaining the highest level of comfort in the rooms. The careful management of the movement of light and shadow evokes the idea of infinite spaces at the duoMo.

Source : Design Hotel, Interior Design

Hotel design is currently an exciting area of architecture. New trends in hotel design are currently coming about as a result of the modern desire to travel, increase our range of experiences, and utilize our precious leisure time more effectively. Today, I will show you about Palace of the sea or the Palau de la mar in Spanish.

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The Hospes Palau de la Mar is a new addition to the cultural and creative scene of one of Spain’s most lively cities Valencia. Continuing a tradition of fine cuisine and hospitality, the Palau de la Mar (Palace of the Sea) is a modern remodelling of two palace residences in the centre of the city. An immaculately developed and advanced concept, the hotel is the work of prestigious interior designers Isabel Lopez and Sandra Tarruella.

Hospes is known for restoring historic buildings while successfully updating them into workable and luxurious properties.

Under natural light pouring through a stained glass skylight, the grand loggia stairway with an intricately carved wood banister has been made all the more striking by simply painting the surrounding areas a stark ivory white.

Once a carriage passageway, the vaulted foyer is accented by using interesting textures such as black leather padding atop the banister rail and a long cowhide runner in the foyer’s hallway. The casual and contemporary interior patio pairs well with the classical nobility of the façade and interior architecture. Covered by a glass-and-steel balcony, which leads to the guestrooms, the patio’s raised boxes are lushly filled with fragrant Mediterranean plants and herbs.

Though the design concept remains consistent throughout, the original architecture of the two mansions has brought about innovative uses of space. As for interior design, principles of modernity reign rather than historicism. Carefully co-ordinated design elements, mainly using wengé wood, have been chosen for the rooms: The joinery work on the wardrobes complements the floor pattern, which is again mirrored in the wengé headboards, tables and stools placed throughout. Some guestrooms feature oversized bathrooms where large bathtubs are either sectioned off from or opened up to the main living and sleeping space via a folding wooden screen.

Source : Design Hotel, Interior Design