It was 25 years ago that art aficionado Otto Wiesenthal opened the hotel in the Spittelberg quarter. The concept of a home for friends and guests has grown over the years and taken over more and more space. It now counts 58 rooms, suites and apartments. Additional apartments were gradually rented and neighbouring houses built into. The individual rooms are all designed by artists, architects or designers — many of them friends of the owner’s family. Every room is different and has a personal touch. Instead of interchangeable standard interiors a multi-faceted private cosmos that is unintentionally eclectic has emerged: A Bösendorfer grand piano stands in one room, another has been turned into a private cinema, there’s also a large roof terrace that dialogues with the city. Matteo Thun and Dietrich Untertrifaller, design duo Polka and fashion designer Lena Hoschek have all designed rooms, among others. The most recently completed enhancements include meticulously balanced interiors by Adolf Krischanitz, Lilli Hollein and Gregor Eichinger.
Adolf Krischanitz: Room 64
“Vienna has a long tradition of interior design, it’s impossible not to be aware of it,” says architect Adolf Krischanitz referring to Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. His room design for the Hotel Altstadt in Vienna is conceived as a bringing together of space, function and furniture. The bathroom, toilet and wardrobe are concealed in the entrance area behind large sliding doors. When the oak-veneered elements are closed, the room area is increased. “For me, a hotel room is an ideal space. I can even imagine living permanently in hotels,” says the architect. A comfortable upholstered bench invites guests to sit down and read. It has no legs and is mounted on the wall to simplify floor cleaning. There are also two mobile side tables and floor lamps designed by Krischanitz himself. The desk is placed directly in front of the window — with a view to the outside. The wall at the headboard end of the bed is panelled in oak veneer, the other side is covered in wallpaper. Its pattern transfers a young artist’s black and white drawing on to the surface as a large field of flowers.
Krischanitz is not convinced that TVs in hotel rooms have to be directed at the bed so the TV can be rotated 180 degrees in the direction of the upholstered bench.
Lilli Hollein: Room 67
The design of Lilli Hollein and Markus Eiblmayr’s new suite shows that a hotel room can also be daring. The tall room opens airily and elegantly — with carefully selected fabrics and deliberate colour accents. The suite is conceived as a stage on which various protagonists gather. “As director of Vienna Design Week I am on the one hand a supporter of international design but on the other also keen to promote this country’s design scene and bring it into the public eye,” says Lilli Hollein. The uninterrupted wallpaper with drawings of dramatic cloud formations — a classic design by Piero Fornasetti — makes the space come alive. Beside the bed a mirrored wall hides the door to the bathroom. This trick to expand the room was first used by Adolf Loos and is deployed again here by the designers.
The fit-out concept for room 67 sees various furniture pieces by young Austrian designers stand side by side. The minimal ceiling light by Viennese duo Chmara.Rosinke takes up Loos’ idea of expanding the room by reflecting room fragments over the bed with its shards of mirror. A compact secretaire by designers March.Gut offers space to work while chairs by Marco Dessi and a sofa by Patrycja Domanska are upholstered in selected Raf Simons fabrics, emphasising their different textures, colours and patterns. In order to strengthen its theatrical personality, long red curtains are suspended in front of the windows — just like on a theatre stage.
Gregor Eichinger: Room 66
Originally hotel rooms were intended as a temporary home for business travellers who wanted to feel at ease in a foreign place in the evening. Architect Gregor Eichinger, who is an expert on the sensual aspects of interiors, references this tradition specifically but interprets it in a new way. The only piece of furniture in room 66 is the large free-standing bed in the centre of the high-ceilinged space. From here the guest can look directly into the city through the window on the opposite side. On its back the bed features an upholstered bench facing the entrance and two lateral side tables. In the evening the bed becomes a sort of command centre: by pushing a button a screen hidden under the window lintel can be extended and used to project films. The integrated sound system will make the hearts of movie aficionados beat that little but faster. Wardrobe, shower and wash basin are concealed behind a three-dimensional wall, which occupies the entire length of the room. Its surface is covered in a fabric designed by Herzog & de Meuron that has both tactile and acoustic qualities. An elegant curve is created by the different sizes of the facilities behind it. This bathroom area is translucent — glass surfaces divide the room into individual zones. Stainless steel rectangular handles fixed intentionally high up transform the opening of the individual elements into a conscious act.
