Meetings and Scale

The three functions, trade fair, conference and hotel, lend the project a special range in scale, from the large-scale exhibition hall down to the intimate hotel room. The goal was to create environments that feel equally worked-through and detailed regardless of spatial scale. For us, it was important to create a relaxed and a cared-for environment beyond the anonymity that is often experienced in hotels. Interior materials and finish range from natural materials and traditional artisan processes to an innovative application of contemporary materials. The surrounding landscape enters the facility in the form of abstracted nature. Plant walls evoke the scents of the forest and provide changeability while large amorphous shapes resembling small lakes, cast in the floor of the conference centre, break down the scale of the space.

An important starting point for the project was to connect its various elements spatially and visually. Accordingly, the interiors of the conference centre are replicated in the hotel lobby but with an additional level of detail. To facilitate movement between the conference centre foyer, the hotel lobby and the restaurant we proposed, during the competition stage, a new staircase between the lobby and the restaurant. The connection between the two floors is further enhanced by a ten-metre-high drapery which creates a colourful and inviting background for the hotel and is clearly visible from the entrance plaza of the trade fair.

A meeting hotel where people stay for a prolonged period is characterised by work and much social activity, which has been fundamental for the design of the rooms. Structured in three zones, the interior design encompasses an intimate entrance and bathroom area, a sleeping section and closest to the window a generous work area with a comfortable, characterful armchair and a mirror that visually breaks up the room. In order to create a room where the guest feels looked after, we have strived, as far as possible, to work with unfixed elements of varying styles. An interesting aspect of the project is the high number of specially designed units (which is possible in a project with 248 more or less identical rooms), with which we avoid the institutional character that often defines hotel rooms.