Contract - April 2011 - (Page 34)

design Atelier Jean Nouvel designed all the interiors and the custom-made furniture. The 182 guestrooms and suites (above and left) are monochromatic, and their tones are keyed to those of the three principal façades—black, white, and grey. Velvety paint and upholstery provide a sensual texture, and graphic designers Alain Bony and Henri Labiole painted reticent patterns of words, dots, and lines on walls and ceilings to give each room a unique signature. “Arriving guests look straight into the nostrils of a huge glowing nose,” says Rist, reveling in the shock this is likely to provoke. The ceiling of the winter garden has a watery theme that includes fish and ferns. In The Loft, a prestigious 200-seat restaurant commanding views over the city, diners are canopied by autumnal foliage, and video screens show an eye opening and a hand squeezing a peach. Angled mirrors project this imagery down to street level. “We worked closely with the chef and architect to control the intensity of the colored light,” says general manager William J. Haandrikman. “The goal throughout was to achieve a harmony that puts people at ease. There’s an initial shock, but it wears off after a few minutes.” Nouvel has been called the “Prince of Darkness” for his love of shadows, and he enjoys the role of agent provocateur. “I don’t build hotel rooms,” he says. “What I really create are temporary possibilities of residing and moving, of imagining and dreaming.” He notes that there are plenty of five-star hotels in Vienna with traditional décor so he didn’t feel obliged to please everyone, instead preferring to create something unique. That impulse produced 182 guestrooms and suites employing the single color of their façade—black, white or gray—for every surface and piece of custom-designed Nouvel furniture. To intensify this sensory experience, wall paint and fabrics share a velvety texture. And each room has been given a distinctive signature by French graphic designers Alain Bony and Henri Labiole. Using pencils, spray cans, and brushes in tones of gray, silver, and white, they added subtle lines and dots to walls and ceilings—even illegible words by famous writers on the ceilings. “Our work will remain incomprehensible and mysterious to a certain degree,” says Bony. “How can I fill a hotel with these extreme colors?” wondered Haandrikman when he was appointed, but he now admits that his fears were unfounded. “It’s exactly what this Francophile city needs. Berlin and Barcelona have become more modern, and it was time for Vienna to do the same. We serve a niche market—people love it or hate it—but no guest yet has wanted to move out of an all-black room.” For a project source list, see page 60 or visit www.contractdesign.com. www.contractdesign.com 34 contract april 2011 http://www.contractdesign.com http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - April 2011

Contract - April 2011
Table of Contents
Editor's Note
Industry
Resources: Nature Inspired
Focus: A Difficult Birth
Practice: From the Inside Out
Pure Spirit
Sensory Experience
Market Watch
Sibling Revelry
Screening Sophistication
Winter Wonderland
Full of Grace
Designers Rate
Sources
Ad Index
Perspectives

Contract - April 2011