Hotel Puerta América, Third Floor
The Hotel Silken Puerta América in Madrid is an innovative project that involved numerous architects and designers. David Chipperfield designed the interior of the third floor.
“Let us imagine a luxurious setting and a private space. We design a room using luxury materials, such as terracotta and marble, where you can also enjoy them. We think of a space pared down to the essentials, which would thus confer a certain importance on each element. It is rare to be asked to design a hotel room without having to adhere to any type of restrictions. Thus, this has been my opportunity to design the kind of room I would like to find in any hotel”. David Chipperfield starts from this idea, and designs a simple yet wholly welcoming space.
The hallway, painted totally black, gives a feeling of depth and privacy, as if one were submerged in a type of time tunnel without knowing where we would emerge, in what time or place in history. Triangular bundles on the ceiling precisely attempt to confer this quality of spatial depth and continuity, the feeling of forgetting where we are. Relaxation and privacy are the keys here. What is more, the walls in the lobby and hallway, in lacquered DM, boast a strip of light every so often, thus contributing to the feeling of being in a time tunnel.
In the rooms, the surprise is that Chipperfield has sought a different type of room based on a highly geometric concept of space. The entire floor is covered with pieces of terracotta measuring 7 x 21 cm. Some of them are hand-cut due to the difficulty of covering them in certain spots within the room, such as the corners. The spatial order continues in the desk, which is made of a single slim piece using the same proportions as the floor tiles and walls, occupying approximately the same length as the bed and located next to it. It is made of black LG Hi-Macs. The bench and headboard are covered in black leather as well, making for utter simplicity. Over the bed is a piece of lacquered blue DM which constitutes a unique feature in the room. The contrasting colours, mainly black and white, and the simplicity of the space give the guests supreme relaxation and achieve a very well-lit space.
