The Happier the Hotelier, The Happier the Guest
Clearing up and posting old Stuff:
Wallpaper makes clear Eco Design has its attention.
It’s a great source for Eco friendly design.
Mexican Caribbean coast located Hotel Basico is mentioned among others. The architects used a lot of recycled materials.
Cleaning up and publishing some old drafts:
As some readers may know: I am a fan of Philippe Starck, not in the last place because he, like yours truly, is from the very good Bordeaux wine vintage year of 1949:-). Didn’t I promise yoo to pay more attention to Wine?
Lately you don’t seem to see the usual stream of new ideas and new inventions coming from him.
Probably this is because he teamed up with UK property tycoon John Hitchcox and others and formed Yoo. Yoo is mostly about development of residential property, but is also engaged in new Hotel developments.
Granmercy By Starck is one example. Back via the back door in cooperation with his old buddy Ian Schraeger? Oops, Tamara of Mr and Mrs Smith had a Lunch with John Hitchcox who stated there is no connection with this Granmercy and Ian Schrager’s Granmercy.
‘We want to offer democratic, high-fashion living.’ – PHILIPPE STARCK
Well this post is also meant as a rant. Those apartments don’t come cheap. In addition, like many designers, Mr Starck likes Flash for his sites. I don’t like Flash, not in the last place because it prevents poor Bloggers like myself to pinch nice photo’s from a site. (Even if you know how to do it, it is cumbersome) Therefore this silly picture…..
Last edited by GJE on November 29,2009 at 11.13 AM
Apparently super yacht A, named after current billionaire owner Andrey Melnichenko’s wife Alexandra, has been delivered: According to a Times Online article, it sneaked to Norway to take three Monet Paintings on board as extravaganza decorations reportedly to avoid some taxes, but I suspect also to avoid some legislation that prohibits export of art.
The Internet works very fast because here you see a photo posted by a Norwegian as a comment to the Times article to prove A actually was in Norway. Note its razor sharp bow.
At first glance I thought it was a big white submarine.
Philippe Starck conceived the yacht in 2003.
However, more than with a submarine there are similarities in design, especially en profile, with the Zumwalt Class Destroyer. The US Navy is developing this new destroyer class for delivery in 2013. It is named after US Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr..
Here it is at a sea trial
Some YouTube footage from a sea trial.
Modeling super yachts after commercial vessels was already a trend in super yacht design, but now it becomes more and more apparent that modeling your super yacht after men of war is the new trend in Yacht Design.
I wonder what kind of weaponry the owner has installed in order to fence off pirates and art robbers….
via Monaco Eye
The CitizenM Room has various neat design features:
Its 2 m long and 2 m wide Bed under the window with, on the west side of the hotel, nice views on one of the landing strips of Schiphol Airport:
Under the bed, like in yachts, there is a huge trunk size drawer where you can stash your luggage away. Next to the entrance there are 5 coat and dress hangers over a small locker that can hold a small laptop without loading facility for its batteries.
How do they manage to care for those beds? Very simple: They developed a system whereby the whole mattress can be pulled up to the front of the bed vertically. The used sheets fall of and the clean sheets can be hung up on the two upper corners in stead of crawling around the bed which would be impossible. They applied for a patent for the system.
The view gets nicer when the sun sets:
The shower and the Throne have each their own cylindric glass separation. The throne’s glass is etched. Between the shower and the bed there is a room wide curtain to separate the bath”room” part from the Sleeping part of the room. In the Throne’s cylinder an extra air suction facility prevents odors.
Here you see the two cylinders closed. Left is The Hotel Throne. Even I with my considerable belly can easily pass between the two cylinders. In the middle you see the sink. Under the sink is a small cupboard that holds the waste basket. No tiles behind the sink. The floor of the room is quite slippery when wet.
In this photo of Citizen M taken from the bed, you can see the mood lighting and, on the left,the separation curtain (they took care of the Yotel guest reviews that were complaining about the visibility of the Yotel Throne) and the rain shower. There are two tables in front of the bed and there is one chair available: The Vitra re issued C1 chair designed by Verner Panton.
Between the sink and the throne there is a turnable frame with on the one side a man high mirror and on the other side some small shelfs to store stuff and a shaving mirror and some international shaving wall sockets.
This photo I took in the big mirror.
This photo I took in the shaving mirror.
Detail of the sink with huge soap block
Two types of shampoo and a water bottle which is the only drink available in the room. Other drinks you have to fetch in the lobby cum canteen M…however I noticed they closed the lot during the night at around 2 AM while Rattan claimed during his introduction that it would be open all night!
I don’t know what to think of this feature: The Citizen M Doll. If you think it is a gift you are wrong: They charge a hefty Euro 20 for it!
Conclusions
Room rates vary according to demand and start with Euro 69 per night up to Euro 139 per night.
The bed sleeps fine.
All in all I am really impressed by the care for detail in this concept. Especially the lack of outside noise is amazing with all the planes flying around at Schiphol Airport.
Good value for money if you are looking for a bed to crash in.
Some of my prior posts in the Dutch Design category I forgot to number. I found the correct number:-)
Dutch designers Colin Finnegan and Gerard Glintmeijer of FG Stijl have had a important influence in the design of the Amsterdam College Hotel. I now have access to press material from their site and also, after setting up my new computer, I am able to resize their high resolution photos without getting the famous blue screen. Therefor I now can offer my dear readers some additional photos.
I do like this style. The College Hotel is partly staffed by students from a local hotel school. Therefor the service is sometimes not entirely up to the standards that FG Stijl has set for this hotel.
Update May 14, 2008:
Recently the owner of the Hotel (the Amsterdam school ROC) was forced by the Dutch Government to sell the school. Dutch Government deemed the risks of owning a hotel too high for a state funded school….The buyer is Michael van de Kuit’s Nedstede Groep BV. Contrary to many property tycoons, Michael van de Kuit wishes to stay as anonymous as possible. To that extent he even has retained a PR adviser to keep him off the journalists’ hooks.