Axis Hotel

photo: Petr Šmídek, 2011

The main goal of the investor of the hotel was to offer guests an exclusive building with a unique exterior appearance and corresponding amenities. Viana do Castelo is located in northern Portugal at the foot of Mount St. Luzia near the delta of the Lima River. The Axis hotel was built on the eastern edge of the city within walking distance of the historic center. Originally, there was a bus station here, where several significant streets converge strategically. The old Bandeira road with the new Capitão Gaspar de Castro avenue, the historic Ponte de Lima route, and the new access to the IC1 highway.
From the roundabout, a road leads north to the residential area and south to commercial buildings and a city park on the banks of the Lima River. The clear situation led the authors to orient the design southwards towards the vibrant city life. By overlapping individual hotel floors, a dynamic image was created that resembles building blocks of Lego.
At the bottom of the building, there is a parking lot for 150 cars, technical operations, and hotel service facilities. In the basement, there is additionally a shopping center, a spa club, a multifunctional area, and an administrative section. This construction program is covered by skylights of various heights. The main access to the hotel lobby is from the northern Capitão Gaspar de Castro street, where the restaurant, bar, and recreational zone on the roof of the spa club are also located. The remaining upper floors belong to 88 hotel rooms. On the eastern edge of the plot, a restaurant was created, whose mass protects the hotel from noise from the intersection. The varied content of the interior program and the distinct exterior appearance of the hotel prompted the architects to reduce the materials used in the interior to better highlight the contrast between the dark exterior and the light shades inside the hotel.