Sleek and Chic is the hallmark of a design by Piero Lissoni, who has used a subtle colour palette and some of his own-design furniture to transform this iconic 19th-century bank building

Interior Design : Piero Lissoni

Award-winning Milan-based designer Piero Lissoni has transformed one of Amsterdam’s most iconic buildings, a former Victorian bank, into the luxury Conservatorium Hotel.

Built at the end of the 19th century to house the Rijkspostspaarbank, it became a landmark building in the regeneration of the museum district, which had previously been derelict. After the bank moved out it was left abandoned for five years until 1983, when the Sweelinck Music Conservatorium made its home there until 1998. A decade of neglect followed, until the building’s glorious past was recognised by developer Alrov, which bought it in 2008 and began an enormous renovation project.

Architect Daniel Knuttel, who had designed the building 114 years ago, has been praised for his ability to fuse simplicity and functionality – what the furniture and interior designer Lissoni has fused in the renovations with his hybrid modern and contemporary designs. He has succeeded in breathing new life into the late-Victorian building by creating a hotel with a new, modern spin that nevertheless is respectful of the building’s history. (continue reading…)

When a new hotel makes the word ‘Design’ part of its name, it sets out making a very strong statement. This new-build hotel in the Czech Republic, filled as it is with contemporary conceptual art in addition to the inspired architecture and interiors, lives up to its name…

Architecture & Interior Design: Labor13

Design Hotel Miura, which recently opened in Celadna, Czech Republic, has been designed by Prague-based company LABOR13 to gratify art lovers, design and architectural fans as well as golf enthusiasts.

Located in between two 18-hole golf courses, in a valley in the midst of the picturesque Moravian Mountains, the hotel boasts an art collection featuring the work of British sculptor and Turner Prize winner Tony Cragg, controversial Damien Hirst, monumental Henry Moore and father of pop art Andy Warhol.

The architecture of the entire building is eye-catching, as the large, rectangular building sits in front of the picture-perfect mountains and amid the work of Czech sculptor, David Cerny. His oversized, mirrored sculptures of cuboid people, or ‘cubeople,’ sit on the roof, push against the side of the hotel, or are taking a dip in a water pool. (continue reading…)

Labor13 was established in 2007 by Martin Vomastek, Albert Prazák and Jirí Bardodej. The consultancy is based in Prague and has recently been working on a number of different projects, many of which have been in the Czech Republic. Currently the office is working on a variety of projects that include new public and private buildings, renovations of historical buildings, public and private interiors, museum exhibitions and the design of city public spaces. (continue reading…)

This new resort hotel on the Adriatic Coast is just a short walk around the bay from the Medieval town of Rovinj. It not only pays homage to classic Croatian Hotel design from the Seventies but also is a showcase for the talents of contemporary Croatian Creatives

Architect: 3LHD
Interior design: Numen/For Use

Croatia’s first design hotel, the newly opened Lone, is so much more than a sensational looking hotel on the Adriatic coast. The organically shaped exterior form of the hotel is carried on into the interiors, where design, bespoke furniture and lighting, conceptual artwork in the form of sculptures in steel and fabrics and live plants, collaborate to present a stunning showcase of Croatian creative talent.

The Lone is in Istria in northern Croatia. The region survived untouched by the bloody and vicious fighting that ravaged the rest of the country and its neighbours in the Nineties, but its creative forces that were just starting to emerge in the post-Tito era were nevertheless overshadowed by events, and now are only re-emerging on to a worldwide stage. (continue reading…)

3LHD is a collaborative architectural studio, particularly interested in the integration of architecture, art and (urban) landscape. In 2008 it was featured in the Mare Nostrum exhibition of the 2nd International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, as well as the joint exhibition at Harvard University – New trajectories: Contemporary Architecture in Croatia and Slovenia, and it represented Croatia at the Venice Biennale 12th International Exhibition of Architecture 2010. (continue reading…)

The best of a city-centre hotel from the fifties has been retained and brought back to life alongside inspirational and quirky design gestures from The Campana Brothers, working on their first hotel with characteristic great style and aplomb

Interior Design: Humberto and Fernando Campana

For Greek Cypriot art collector and hotel owner Dakis Joannou the New Hotel, Athens has been a true labour of love. After picking apart the tired Olympic Palace Hotel, which was built in the heart of the capital in 1958, Joannou and Brazilian design duo Humberto and Fernando Campana set about reconstructing it, piece by piece, and in doing so was able to retain many of the original features. (continue reading…)