Situated at the historical center of Saint-Petersburg, Russia, NOMESSPROCESS studio has transformed communal apartment into an apartment hotel Sands Rooms. The seven-rooms apartment near Nevsky Avenue in the Reibstein`s revenue house built in 1912 became the main inspiration for architects and their clients.
The manifestation of the authentic urban spirit, that was hidden in desolation, would give the apartment a chance to continue its history.
From an apartment, each room of which belonged to different families for a century, it was turned to 4 separate rooms with a common lobby with an entrance through the historic hall with a fireplace and 1 three-rooms apartment with its own entrance through the traditional for St. Petersburg courtyard-well.
The client`s technical requirements described the general issue for each room: the
availability of personal units of bathrooms and mini-kitchens. A key added design element was created from these blocks which were interpreted differently to built into the scenario of every room.
The rethinking of the space was hold with the preservation and careful restoration of the original historical interior details.
Wooden windows and doors were cleared of several layers of paint to return them their natural color. Their geometry and existing fittings was restored and debugged while the missing elements were selected from analogues from the flea markets suitable for the time period. Each room has its own original stucco molding with a unique ornament which during the clearing revealed an abundance of details. Under the layers of wallpaper and plaster we found walled up brass vents connected to the common house ventilation, which we sandblasted to reveal the original texture. A minimalistic design stove has been preserved by previous owners and needed just replacement of some tiles. The oak parquet which has come down to this project in good condition required only scraping and applying a new layer of oil.
Old pieces of furniture and last century mode of life (canapé, sideboards, books) were leftovers of former owners in some rooms. Almost all these elements were integrated into the new design. NOMESSPROCESS did not have the purpose of turning the hotel into a museum of antiquity but the project was conceived as a kind of bridge between the man of XXI century and the rich architectural history of Saint-Petersburg. At the time of working on the project there were no mini-hotels in the city initiated by the complete restoration of all historical elements with the opportunity to comfortably plunge into the details of the past even during a short stay in the room.
Materials used:
- Equipe – Wall tile – Artisan Collection
- Topcer – Floor tile – Octagon with dot Collection, Hexagon Collection