Hotel Puerta América, Second Floor
The Hotel Silken Puerta América in Madrid is an innovative project that involved numerous architects and designers. Norman Foster designed the interior of the second floor.
Foster personifies the elegance of hi-tech. Here he plays with shapes and materials to express luxury and sensuality, but especially to ensure that guests disconnect with the hectic surroundings of a large city like Madrid. This was his main goal, and to achieve it everything was inspired by the palette of materials of the Basque sculptor, Eduardo Chillida, a personal friend. He himself acknowledges that he has created a “perfect urban sanctuary”. Two highly creative spirits, this Basque sculptor and British architect joined forces to create a provocative and highly subtle design that blends high-tech materials like glass with the warmth of carpeting and leather.
In the lobby, a Zhan Wang sculpture welcomes the guests. The walls are covered with off-white leather, a solution that helps convey to guests a sense of privacy. Further on, in the hallways the walls draw our attention, at certain points resembling gigantic backlit translucent glass lanterns which serve to reinforce the feeling of a highly dynamic space. These walls become the central element of the design and act as a nexus between the hallway and the rooms by penetrating into the rooms, serving as the walls in the shower stalls as well. What is more, the bathroom ceiling is made of stretched canvas that is backlit, as if the guest was in a tanning booth! Here, too, the idea of technology so characteristic of the British architect makes itself felt. One has the feeling of bathing in a bathroom out of a science fiction novel, rather than being in a hotel in the middle of Madrid. In short, it is a flexible, sinuous, technological space.
In the rooms, Foster prefers simple, light yet suggestive lines, such as those on the Millennium Bridge in London which joins the Tate Modern to the City. At the Hotel Silken Puerta América Madrid, the use of leather manages to convey different feelings without overburdening the space unnecessarily. Moreover, the materials’ different textures manage to provide the guests with different acoustic sensations. The headboard of the bed is covered in brown leather. Across from it, the wall hiding the television and other services is covered in white leather, conferring a sense of warmth and privacy, which is reinforced by the oak wood flooring. A simple handle enables guests to lift a door to see the television. Stridency has no place here. The bed is also positioned barely off the floor, a virtual enticement to relaxation.
A large swath of backlit onyx, which also acts encompasses the sink in the bathroom, spans the space wall to wall. In the bedroom, it morphs into the desk, thus elegantly joining together bathroom and sleeping area. The illumination seeks not only to showcase it but also to achieve certain spaciousness, since it is also a piece that does not take up too much room despite its length. This is most likely the greatest surprise for guests and summarises “the flexible atmosphere of the bedroom”, in Foster’s own words, and the luxury he has striven to convey.
