Hotel Puerta América, Seventh Floor
The Hotel Silken Puerta América in Madrid is an innovative project that involved numerous architects and designers. Ron Arad designed the interior of the seventh floor.
It has been said of Ron Arad’s work that it has all the energy of modern art. He is one of the inevitable benchmarks in current design. His ideas seem to be inexhaustible, and all his pieces become commercial successes. As a Professor at the Royal College of Art in London, he has also taught and inspired many of the top designers working now. At the Hotel Silken Puerta América Madrid, he has designed a sinuous space with eminently luxurious details.
Arad’s rounded, sinuous shapes can be glimpsed in the lobby, which boasts a circular sofa made of reflective fibreglass, foam and Alcantara in anthracite grey. On the walls are large LCD screens where different images can be viewed. The floor of both areas is made of elastic resin, and the ceiling curves downwards, seeming to swoop over the guest, although in reality it manages to creative a cosier, more modern space.
Ron Arad suggests a concept of room in which bulbous, rounded shapes characteristic of his way of designing prevail. A curved, continuous wall, white in some rooms and bright red in others, acts as a central divider separating the different uses of the space. Arad creates a circuit in which guests gradually discover each of the spaces: first the entryway, then the bed, then the bathroom, the sink, the toilet. Everything bit by bit. The round bed is by the Italian design firm Capellini and is placed towards the back of the room. It is highly provocative and comfortable. There are no limits; it is like a dream world. The television is actually a large screen that unfolds from the ceiling. There is no doubt that for many people, the luxury of having a gigantic screen right in front of the bed will be the best feature of Arad’s design. The headboard is part of the LG Hi-Macs piece which has been directly soldered onto the wall to achieve a feeling of continuous space, of a circuit which has neither beginning nor end. In the bathroom, each space is made independent of the next by means of a wall divider. Despite the continuity, the logical independence is not forsaken. The shower and toilet have stainless steel ceilings. Arad seamlessly blends both materials, achieving an extremely modern space with a touch of high technology. Across is a huge swath of glass, which in the case of the toilet not only provides a distorted reflection of the guest, but also visually enlarges the space. The chairs at the desk are Fantastic Plastic Elastic designed by Arad for the firm Kartell, also sinuous and suggestive. Their lightness entices the guest to sink into them, to submerge himselfin a different design concept. The guest moves about the space continually surprised, as if attempting to find new shapes in every corner.
