W HOTEL, LONDON |
Tuesday 31 Jan 2012
|
SHOWSTOPPERS
W Hotel entry & Welcome area: a 280+350pcs disco ball-cloud that creates a transition from hectic London street life to the W Lounge.
W Lounge: 12m wide x 6m high Union Jack cabinet.
W Lounge bar: a social landscape made out of one chesterfield couch for guests to live, meet, mingle and flirt on.
WYLD bar: disco ball with a diameter of 3 metres.
W Guest rooms: dressing desk: huge desk & vanity table combined into 1 signature furniture piece for the dressing room
Hotel entry
Guests make their entrance underneath a disco ball cloud sculpture made of 280 disco balls. Supported by black glass walls and dynamic spots that point towards the cloud, this hotel entry becomes a dazzling room of reflections. To walk inside this hotel is like stepping into a new world. A world in which travelling is not about burning up the road, but about exploring and being carried away by your surroundings. Hungry guests start their journey at the Spice Market restaurant, which is just a glance away, left from the hotel entry.
Welcome area
The disco ball-cloud sculpture guides you up the first floor, where it obscures the concierge table and follows its way through the welcome area, past W Store and into W Lounge. The welcome area holds three circular pods for guest services, such as check-in and information supply. All pods have equal modular parts, but each has been stacked differently to create three unique shapes. A soft purple light supports the different shapes and shines from underneath and above each pod. From here you can take a good look around, observe other guests, visit the store or sneak a peek into the lounge area.
W Store
London's fashion boutiques are sensational, but if time is running short you'll probably wish for something more nearby. The hotel's W Store is like a jewellery box with padded leather walls and all products arranged around you. The store is conveniently located near the lifts on the first floor. It has no static walls but uses three pivot doors instead, to hide the store when it is closed and invite you for a glimpse inside when it is opened. The doors contain see through windows and illuminated displays and have black leather padding with Union Jack stitching design. The store configuration doesn't distract guests approaching the welcome area, but is an attracting feature for guests on their way back to the lifts.
W Lounge
A broad passage stretches out from the welcome area to the other side of the hotel. A grand white Union Jack cabinet separates the first section where you can pick a book to read and take a seat in the archipelago of W Lounge. The seats and lights of W Lounge appear as one common piece of land at first sight, but once you get closer they all turn out to be different hideaways. Each island has its own furnishing design and a mobile-like light object that follows the shape of the seating. The cushions, seats and stools combine traditional textiles and patterns with a modern look. This contrast of being in the same space and time but on a differently designed level, tries to comfort guests in either way. The traditional English timber flooring extends along the wall and ceiling and creates a contemporary twist with ancient material.
W Lounge bar
This is not so much about the bar; it is the 37m-chesterfield couch that defines the social landscape for guests and friends to live, meet, mingle and flirt on. Everything, including the end-grain oak flooring and gold leaf ceiling, naturally follows the winding landscape. Loose elements cut away from the chesterfield landscape, function as coffee tables and offer a platform to the cylindrical fireplaces that follow the shape of the columns surrounding the couch. The chesterfield defines an important part of British heritage and the way the columns run through the chesterfield suggests the sofa was there long before the modern building was. The lounge bar is a good place to stay at any hour of the day. A striking framework of vertical blinds can be set in different positions and creates different light scenes according to the time of the day and use of the space. A third, loose fragment cut away from the chesterfield landscape has become a golden lit bar. It transforms from a breakfast bar in the morning into a bar at which one can prepare for a wild night out.
WYLD bar
When the daily drag is done, guests can dance the night away at WYLD bar. The bar and two-storey high liquor cabinet, with jewel boxes to highlight the selection of drinks, overlook great Leicester Square - heart of the London cinema land. WYLD's interior look combines the red carpet feel with spicy red & black leather furnishings and a grand finale 3m diameter disco ball. A circular booth surrounds bespoke cocktail tables that light up in red. You can stock away glasses and ice inside its stainless steel pockets. The high level walls are covered with black sequins referring to the West End and moving according to the beat of the music. The DJ looks down onto the dancing crowd and when the music starts to play, the sequins wall opens up to create a stage. Adding to the intimacy of the space, fibre optic strings hang from the windows and create a cocoon.
Core of the building
A backlit glass core wall finishing marks the central part of the building. The wall holds a pattern of silver and gold mirror strokes and frosted glass. The gold and silver strokes have been translated into graphic stripes on carpets and in lighting structures amongst others. The core connects the different characters inside the building and gives them an extra, central identity.
Screening room
Being located at London's West End, this hotel can't do without its own professional screening room. Filmmakers can use state of the art facilities to conduct their pre-screenings. The interior is devoted to the film showing and follows classic cinema arrangement with red seats and black carpet, ceiling and walls. However, when the screening part is done, details in furnishing and lighting appear. The recessed lighting profiles in floor, walls and ceiling create spectacular cubes of light inside the room. They are a graphic reinterpretation of the gold and silver strokes of the core (of the building) and go wild on the walls. The screening room holds a distinguished black velvet wall and the chairs have a subtle variation of three different red fabrics adding to the luxurious feel of a personalised screening chair.
Studios (business centre)
The business centre features two meeting rooms with outstanding interior details and facilities to make your business work. The interior supports various presentational settings, such as on-screen, from the internet or on a magnetic whiteboard. There are comfortable black leather chairs and stools with cushions to choose from and high or low tables with grey lacquered oak laminate. One studio space can be connected to or separated from another by a folding partition wall or with curtains that come in silver velvet or white sheer variation. The studios have a contemporary carpet design of white, grey and silver strokes. It follows the strokes of the core (of the building) on the walls and goes wild on floor and ceiling. Outside the studio area you can overlook W lounge, so you can always be on the lookout for that one colleague or client that is still expected for the meeting. Or you can just be here breathing the energy of W lounge coming into this breakout area.
Sweat & AWAY Spa
After a stressful day or wild night out, guests can charge up at the hotel's Sweat and AWAY Spa. The Sweat is a very light and spacious gym overlooking Leicester square. It has a dark grey rubber flooring that deadens sounds and cushions steps and is comfortable to exercise, stretch or skip rope on. Guests can use Technogym sporting equipment for a good work-out while enjoying the urban view, or check their posture in a large mirror wall. If watching cartoons or sitcoms makes a better support, there are multi flatscreens on the back wall. Those who take their inspiration and motivation from an uplifting art image should point their eyes towards the side walls. Dutch photographer Marcel van der Vlugt has created two special wallpaper pieces, depicting dancers in sparkles of light. Van der Vlugt is an internationally known fashion and commercial photographer who approaches his subjects with the eye of an autonomous painter. The sparkles of the light are inspired by the disco ball cloud and extravagant WYLD bar disco ball .
Lifts
The lifts are ideal dressing rooms at the same time, with a large three-way mirror and integrated flatscreen in a surrounding of black granite tiles and soft padded walls with silver Union Jack stitching design.
Concrete