Hotel Century Old Prague Town
With a touch of luxury
A luxury hotel in the center of Prague is housed in a building of a former insurance company. The writer Franz Kafka once worked there, and his personality inspired the hotel’s overall design. The colour combinations of the interior are distinctive, unique and create a darker atmosphere. The golden colour, high-quality materials such as metal and stone and precise manual work add a spark of luxury. The design was inspired from Ana Moussinet‘s Parisian workshop. However, our role was to respect the suppliers’ possibilities and the real needs of hotel operation. We have involved Czech authors and suppliers into the project as much as possible, whether it was regarding the furniture or large-format photographs of Prague in the hotel corridors. The perfect result was achieved by our careful supervision of the whole realization.
ENTRANCE
LOBBY
The colourful palette of untraditional greenish hues, golden on the lights and a designer carpet, is luxury on the first sight. The black-and-white wallpapers have been tailored for the space. The mirrors magnify it optically and underline its atmosphere. Sitting in the original high-chairs in a niche with a large-format window is comfortable and allows you to see the street locomotion in peace and quiet.
HOTEL
HEDGEHOG BAR
The bar got its name from Foglar’s The Shades and the “hedgehog-in-the-cage” brain twister. The darker atmosphere of the bar came to life thanks to a combination of dark fabrics, paintings and a backlit bar. Everything mirrors the Franz Kafka message and the fore-mentioned Czech classic literature. The unique design of the bar with the milled vertical strips together with the backlighting creates an impression of a cage. The bar desk has a skirting board made of the genuine, bent and folded, brass.
HOTEL
RESTAURANT
You can see a combination of the original elements and the modern design right at the entrance. Everything is designed into the shades of green, gold and black. A beautiful original stucco, thanks to the right lighting, gave the room the necessary dynamics. An originally preserved ceiling and wall lamps were complemented by some modern pieces. The genuine marble tables with a lining trim constitute a very distinctive feature.
HOTEL
GLASS
TERRACE
A courtyard terrace is connected to the hotel restaurant. Enough light enters the restaurant through the fully glassed vertical walls and ceilings of the terrace. A cozy impression is created by the lantern lights and slanted textile elements. The unique black and white tiles are set up according to a pattern that has been tailored for the hotel. Unusual is a combination of the distinctive yellow and different shades of green.
HOTEL
ROOM
The unmistakable colour combination of black, gold and wood is complemented by the Parisian blue in the hotel rooms. The distinctive contrast of colours is softened by the painting in the gray-shade scale and a wallpaper that was created for the project in Paris. The beautiful stuccos optically lower the high ceilings
PREMIUM ROOM
JUNIOR SUITE
The gradient curtains and a “watercolour” rug are the most striking features of each room. A blue leatherette upholstered bed headboard in a wooden frame is beautiful and practical. The suite rooms have a large work desk with a mirror that optically enlarges the room. The bathrooms have cubist tiling. A built-in, wood-paneled niche makes the space cozy. An ambient illuminated mirror in a metal frame illuminates the bathroom sufficiently.
KAFKA SUITE /
BEDROOM AND BATHROOM
The Kafka Suite is located on the 2nd floor of the hotel exactly where Franz Kafka’s office was. The effect of dark painting underlines the sophisticated lighting of the room. Omnipresent luxury is evident from a unique bed headboard, carefully selected fabrics and complements. The bathroom is designed in a contrast to the bedroom to allow for perfect relaxation. There is a free-standing bathtub, a mirror above the washbasins, a semi-transparent wall and terrazzo tiling.
KAFKA SUITE /
LIVING ROOM
The iconic colours of the hotel are also included in the premium apartment and are designed as a whole with the original interior elements. A smoke mirror in a black frame behind a sofa in the living room is spectacular. It reflects a tailor-made black-and-white wallpaper. The wooden cabinets contain a minibar and a coffee maker.
THE
DOME SUITE
On the top floor under the hotel dome there is a two-storey suite. The living area is designed with finer shades and it is located on the lower level. The dynamics of the space is brought by a wall with concrete screed and a unique décor in the form of vertical strips. The rounded furniture elements correspond to the selected finer colour palette of the interior. A great addition is the backlight of the furniture frames around the wall perimeters, the lighting of the concrete screed and the individual lights.
THE
DOME SUITE /
BEDROOM
A unique bed in the shape of a pebble, supplemented with an organic headboard with upholstery and side backlighting is the dominant feature of the bedroom. The round shapes of the furniture along with the light curtains make the original octagonal shape of the room finer. Under the dome there is a custom-made light that was a challenge both for manufacturers and installers. At the end, we managed to fine-tune everything to the smallest detail, including an invisible fixation of the light. A completely unique cosmetic table is the proverbial cherry on the top.
THE
DOME SUITE /
BATHROOM
A suitably chosen combination of tiles from the imitation of white and green marble magnifies the space optically. A design-pure line in the form of a glass partition separates a shower cubicle from the rest of the room. A gold metal frame above a stand-alone washbasin has a practical use too – it is used to store cosmetics.
COMMON
HOTEL
AREAS
In the corridors you can find custom-made carpets with a cubist design. White, combined with a distinctive blue paint, brings a pleasant contrast and dynamics to the space. The large-format black frames with photographs by Michal Vitásek bring the unique atmosphere of Prague into the corridors. An original spiral staircase captivates one with its unrepeatable beauty. The common areas are decorated with the themes of Franz Kafka’s life and works, among other things, with his handwriting samples.
project
info
Architect
Jakub Zoula
Ana Moussinet
Collab architects
Lenka Zoulová
Marek Novák
Engineers
Marek Kolář
Jan Zmátlík
Contractor
ACCOR Hotels
Year
2017
Surface
Whole hotel 5 590 m²