The starting point for the interior design was the constriction of the round architectural envelope. A circular double height volume to the base of the building was topped by five three-quarter circles of bedroom floors, projecting over the base and wrapping inwards on one side to create the main entrance from the terminal. All the public spaces – reception, lounge, bar, spa, fine dining restaurant, breakfast area and workspace – were to be accommodated within the round, ground floor.
Two considerations governed JOI-Design’s response. It was impractical, if not impossible, to divide this space up with conventional solid walls, and this led naturally to the notion of open, but zoned, spaces designed to generate the interactive environment favoured by many business hotels today. Also there already was a Radisson in Hamburg and the new hotel needed to be differentiated from this through design. As a consequence, the interior design concept for the airport hotel celebrates, rather than obscures, the orb of the building form.
The designers were concerned to avoid the potential pitfall of creating a single central hub within a large, but under-utilised circular area. They therefore introduced a series of organic oval forms. These play across the strong and structured concrete space in its entirety like a layered series of discs that are harmoniously related but separate from one another. Inter-relating oval shapes are everywhere – in the form of the reception desks, the design of the bar and in the striking spiral staircase leading to the conference areas. They are painted boldly on the walls, reflected in the choice of furniture and repeated in the carpet design. In the heart of this dynamic space, a sphere accommodates the restaurant with two satellite spheres, bar and breakfast room, on facing sides.
Flooring is in “roasted” oak interspersed with areas of limestone slabs and carpet to define particular areas and their usage; timber panelling is combined with coloured and lit acrylic sheets and the imposing buffet bar is in black granite. A particularly intriguing feature is the door surrounds to two large wine chillers. With hundreds of inset wine bottle bases, back-lit to glow through the space, they are transformed into witty pieces of “glass-art” commissioned by JOI-Design from the acclaimed German glass sculptor, Sybille Homann.
Throughout the public areas, hard finishes are juxtaposed with soft, and fixed elements with floating, breaking down conventional barriers between work and leisure spaces while creating a sense of flexibility and mobility.
“Flexibility and mobility are the two words that capture the spirit of today’s professional nomads,” explains Peter Joehnk, founder and managing director of JOI-Design . “Hotels have become vital interfaces for modern knowledge workers, none more so than airport hotels. They are set to establish themselves as an opposite pole to the impersonal arenas in much of the global business world, such as airports themselves. The design of airport hotels should aim to fill a vacuum – as an off-line meeting place for on-line contacts perhaps, or as a refuge for quiet work, or as somewhere to replenish oneself after a tiring day.”
Lighting is key in the public areas of the Radisson Blu. The overall colour scheme is quiet, in tones of browns, greys and beiges with occasional highlights such as the cream leather seating in the restaurant. The lighting brings the space alive and creates areas of special interest. Large cubes of ceiling lights project changing mood lighting over the restaurant, for example; custom designed freestanding lamps circle the bar like futuristic beacons defining the territory within and a mesh of intertwined and vividly lit threads creates an optical illusion, separating what is in reality an open buffet bar from the restaurant and lobby.
Shape, light and materials combine in an overall effect that is vivacious but not exhausting. This is a modern business hotel, appropriate for its busy airport location, but it is also offers a number of intimate, even cosy, areas where guests can work or dine, or simply unwind, at all times throughout the day.
www.joi-design.com
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