The Hotel

"Shouldn't shiny and matte black have two different names?"

In 1999, Nouvel enriched the picturesque Swiss town of Lucerne with Miesian brilliance. The local hotelier Urs Karli capitalized on the success of the convention center and purchased a seven-story building (originally a school, office building, and apartment block overlooking the park) and had it remodeled by the same architect into a luxury hotel with a restaurant. A hotel of a similar category would typically feature carpets on the walls and draped curtains on the windows. At Nouvel's hotel, guests have to settle for a sensitively cool modernist approach - wooden flooring made of Jatoba (Brazilian cherry), and instead of curtains, the windows are fogged by an electrical impulse. The furniture is also custom-designed. The ceilings of the rooms showcase giant photographs from films by Bunuel and Fellini to Lynch and Greenaway. Nouvel explains: "Films are our version of Greek mythology." The images capture romantic, sometimes thrilling moments from the films. The artist Alain Bony has painted the walls of the rooms, creating a blurred "afterimages" effect reminiscent of the photographs on the ceiling.
How to ensure enough light in a basement with black-painted walls? Just a bit of Duchampian play with mirrors and you will get far more than just light in here. The Bam Bou restaurant in the basement is open to the public, and you can see the effect of the mirrors for yourself. The trend of family hotels with a limited number of rooms is in (Quartier 65 by Max Dudler, Blue Moon by FOA).

Data:
Hotelier: Urs Karli
Area: 15,000 square feet
Number of seats in the restaurant and bar: 70
Number of rooms: 25
Room sizes: 382-578 square feet
Room prices: 244-287 USD