Detailed Review
The Hotel is a boutique hotel in the shape of a deluxe cube very much in the stamp of a single creative force, French architect/designer Jean Nouvel. The big idea here is a giant projection - or rather reproduction, but it has the effect of a projection - of movie stills, some a bit racy, on the ceiling of each of the rooms: John Malkovich writing a letter on Laura Benson’s derriere in Dangerous Liaisons, for example. It is a masterpiece of design and provides a unique experience. This is a boutique hotel which resolutely refuses to take advantage of the two great natural assets Lucerne has to offer, its lake and mountains.
Nouvel also designed the tall moveable stainless steel TV / Hi-Fi consoles, the doors (mirrored on the inside) and the beds. Floors are of polished teak, the large square-like skyscraper style windows are serviced by electric blinds (operated from push button controls) rather than curtains, and great care has been taken with the lighting. These are spaces that really come alive at night, when they are undeniably glamorous in this boutique hotel. The corridors outside are dark and lit industrial style with fluorescent strips to help emphasise the fantasies within the rooms. The Hotel is not just a place to sleep but a reinvention of the hotel experience for the new Millennium era.
The facilities
This boutique hotel offers renowned cuisine to entertain and excite its guests. Awarded 14 points by Gault Millau, Bam Bou is the most stylish restaurant in Lucerne. Serving under the concept of an East-West fusion, a melody of Asian and French flavours will take guests’ palates beyond expectations. The Lounge is an ultra-hip bar where both ambiance and cocktails are never lacking.
The rooms
There are 25 suites and studios at this boutique hotel. Designed sparingly with simplicity and space, the bold and strong dark colours add an excitement to the rooms. Ranging from purples and mauves to a bright orange, room 5403, guests can relax and be playful at this boutique hotel offering abundant amounts of both. For daytime comfort the best rooms are the corner junior suites, which have two windows with park views and separate showers. All beds are twins next to each other and the bathrooms have twin sinks in moulded cream.
Press Quotes
This is a chic, boutique affair designed by the Parisian architect Jean Nouvel in a townhouse overlooking a city-centre park. Suites and studios feature contemporary styling in dark, matt tones and brushed steel. Each guest room has a giant still image from a classic movie on the ceiling.” The Independent 06
Independent Reviews
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"Super-trendy theme hotel with movie stills on the ceilings"
Electric window shutters and finely tuned dimmed lighting make the rooms here the ultimate in cocoonery - though a curious detail, in the form of cheap brand shampoos and toiletries - strikes the one discordant note.
The Hotel
By Jamie Dunford Wood
The much written up newcomer in Lucerne, rather pretentiously named ’The Hotel’, is a deluxe cube very much in the stamp of a single creative force, French architect/designer Jean Nouvel. The big idea here is a giant projection - or rather reproduction, but it has the effect of a projection - of an erotic movie still on the ceiling of each of the 25 guest rooms: John Malkovich writing a letter on Laura Benson’s derriere in Dangerous Liaisons, for example. And like all big ideas, or theme hotels, there is a danger it will date. But really, who cares? It is a masterpiece of design and provides a unique experience. Design-wise, the rooms are rather stark and spare by day, with mostly bold, strong, dark colours - purples, mauves - which Nouvel likes. The brightest, room 5403, is in orange. Nouvel also designed the tall moveable stainless steel TV / Hi-Fi consoles, the doors (mirrored on the inside), the doors and the beds. Floors are of polished teak, the large square-ish skyscraper-style windows are serviced by electric blinds (operated from push button controls) rather than curtains, and great care has been taken with the lighting, but these are spaces that really only come alive at night, when they are undeniably glamourous. Because by day, despite claiming to be a ’park-side resort’ (the park in question is a tiny patch of greenery where a few old men play chess on a giant board on the sidewalk), this is a hotel which resolutely refuses to take advantage of the two great natural assets Lucerne has to offer, its lake and mountains, sight of which from the rooms there is none. The corridors outside are dark and concrete, lit industrial style with flourescent strips, presumably to help emphasise the fantasies within the rooms. However, for daytime comfort the best rooms are the corner junior suites (there is nothing here so banal as a double room, they are all studios or suites), which have two windows and separate showers. All beds are twins next to each other, and the bathrooms have twin sinks in moulded cream. Downstairs is a hip bar (super-hip, according to their brochure), in a city of a recent rash of hip bars, and the inevitable fusion restaurant, the French/Asian ’East meets West’ Bam Bou, ’Lucerne’s most stylish restaurant’. Is this , as they claim, ’not just a place to sleep, but a reinvention of the hotel experience for the new Millennium era’? With three of the 25 stills coming from Ai No Corrida, it’s certainly not just a place to sleep.
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