The hotel was designed by working with the historic layers, recognising its 100 year existence as such and preserving fragments from different periods as a sense of depth. The exterior was completely re-conceived by being clad with semi-reflective green tiles, becoming both a new point of reference in the area and a memory of times past through abstract reflection.

The intervention on the building is based on a conscious and careful process of addition, subtraction and “crystallization”, whereby layers, materials and fragments of space are activated or transformed into a new whole. Hotels are places of potential long continuity in time. The transformation is always based on a recognition of the historical memory, where techniques of the past are brought back to evoke a sense of longing, in opposition to the evolution of hotels as places of monotonous replica. The material scheme and mise-en-scene pursues a spartan, resilient atmosphere. The theatrically public areas in relation to the street invites the guest or flaneur into it, as a sort of urban refuge beyond its private hospitality.

The project increasingly involves accepting the unexpected: layers and relics from previous episodes in the hotel’s existence are brought into play with the new. Flaws and contradiction from the past are not eliminated but integrated as qualities. This openness to the ‘as-found’ also influenced our approach to the newly designed fragments and spaces, like the secret garden.

In consequence with the idea of “crystallization” applied to the rest of the project, with the facade we have chosen a single material that would be able to bring all the different fragments and epochs of the building under one unified envelope. We wanted to produce an abstract and monolithic language that would nonetheless act as a gesture to all the key ‘presents’ of the building references.

But as a building of today, we have taken the tiling detail to the limit, avoiding the use of flashings and other visible junctions to obtain a pure expression. The 15x15cm format allowed us to modulate to the existing geometry, constraining any adjustment of fenestration and returns to the minimum. The result reads like a “fusion”, with the ambition of feeling a-temporary: is the building from the 1920s? the 60s? of today? It gives away no clear belonging.