Built Expressions Bangalore :: Hotel Lone, Rovinj, Istria, Croatia

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Hotel Lone, Rovinj, Istria, Croatia

State-of-the-Art, First Design Hotel in Croatia

Spokesperson - Mladena Zarkovic

Hotels with traditional concept of heavy-carving designs are a passe. Now it's an age of design hotels. A design hotel can be called so with its contemporary and ultra-stylish; they're usually small in size and rely on a themed aesthetics. Such design hotels entail an awe-inspiring amenities and cutting-edge technology. Similarly, Hotel Lone, the first design hotel in Croatia is meant to illustrate this as a space that nurtures the concept of an interesting and functional design.

It is situated in the Monte Mulini forest park, Rovinj's most attractive tourist zone, located in the immediate vicinity of the legendary Eden Hotel and the new Monte Mulini hotel. The surrounding grounds and parkland is a unique and protected region of the Monte Mulini forest on the Lone Bay. 3LHD was responsible for the design and the construction of the hotel building, but the hotel was created by a team of renowned Croatian Creatives. Mladena Zarkovic Public Relation Officer, 3LHD says, "The cooperation between us as architects and conceptual artists, product, fashion and graphic designers was crucial to design a distinct and recognizable identity. In addition to the overall architecture, the interiors and the furniture were designed and chosen especially for the hotel in order to achieve a distinct and recognizable identity. The biggest challenge was to overcome the client limitations (in terms of costs and design) and still produce a hotel that completely satisfied them and has an interesting and functional design."

External Design

The hotel's identity is recognized through the external design of the building, with a facade that is defined by dominant horizontal lines - terrace guards designed to evoke the image of slanted boat decks. The building's floor plates' contract from level to level going up, creating an elevation that is tapered at all angles. Explaining about the unique construction of the design, Mladena says, "The site's complex terrain with dramatic altitude changes determined the locations of internal facility spaces through a dynamic interweaving of public areas and guest suites at all levels. The specific 'Y' shaped ground plan enabled a rational and functional organizational scheme. The main lobby connects common spaces on all levels, creating a central volume of impressive height and scale with interesting views in and around where all vital functions of the hotel take place."

Black, white and wooden-based colour interiors

When designing the interior, 3LHD and the designers from Numen/For Use chose the surrounding ambiance as the hotel's signature visual element which also defined all views of the interior. With that in mind, the walls in the rooms are covered with mirrored panels, distributed in a random pattern which reflects ambient light and Mediterranean greenery, pulling them deeply into the interior, filling it with the exterior. The greenery also reflects on the glossy surfaces of ceilings in public areas, intensifying the effect of the surrounding plants. The visually light and open space of the lobby is covered in white stone surfaces and beige-golden fabrics, the oval lines of the mezzanine guards and the furniture enhance the fluid character of the space and are in contrast with the intimate, subdued tones of the rooms and suites where the atmosphere is calmer, materials warmer (wood and carpets), the colours darker and lighting dimmer. The entire design of the hotel is based on contrasts (black, white, wood) and fabrics as the unifying element, varying from a fluid thin veil in the restaurant, through functional but dynamic wall coverings in the rooms, to he richly decorative mural in the lobby.

The key concept was the awareness of the necessity to avoid the sterility of most hotel facilities; that is why the designers used textiles with rich textures and quality oak veneer treated with eco-friendly lacquers, which give the visual and tactile impression of untreated massive wood. This material is usually too rustic but in this execution it manages to integrate walls and spaces into a harmonious composition through contemporary design and purified, spatially articulated shapes of panelling that overflow into furniture. The conceptual assumptions used in the design of the hotel and its interior show evidence of a deep respect towards the achievements of hotel architecture on the Adriatic Coast from the previous century, combining it with a strong modernity expressed primarily in materials, functions and typologies and consequently in architectural forms.

'L', 'ON', 'E' restaurants

The hotel has 236 rooms and 12 suites. 16 rooms offer an exclusive experience of a private massage pool built in the room's terrace. All the rooms are suitable for all types of guests. Rooms with king-size beds, twin beds or connected rooms are suitable for families. Speaking on different restaurants Mladena says, "The hotel has three restaurants "L", "ON" and "E", two bars, a jazz club and a mini club. One of the main characteristics of the hotel is the state of the art high-quality conference centre with 4 conference halls, several meeting rooms, and a VIP lounge fully equipped with the most advanced technology and an accompanying bar." The hotel's lowest level has a wellness centre inspired by the Mediterranean. Besides a big pool there is a fitness centre, massage rooms, a relaxation zone with a vitality bar, saunas and hydro massage pools - so called "sunken rooms".

Design for Seismic and Wind Forces

The hotel is built on a seismically calm area, so special protection from earthquakes was not needed. Since the hotel is only 6 floors high the wing was not an important factor in the building design. All of the usual norms and regulations were respected.

Furniture Design

Numen/ for use, Nikola Radeljkovi?, Sven Jonke, Christoph Katzler

The common denominator, exquisitely designed furniture, connects all the hotel's areas. Most of the furniture are carefully selected manufactured pieces, but also includes items made especially for this hotel by the well known design group Numen/For Use.

To achieve immediate notice of the interior, the Numen/For Use group chose probably their most famous furniture piece, the Satyr armchair (Wallpaper award for Best World Sofa 2007), as an object with character and strong identity. The Satyr is present in all rooms with different colours of textile depending on the room's position. Another signature piece found in all rooms is the lamp made by Dekor from Zabok and designed especially for the Hotel Lone. The lamps also differ in materials used for lampshades depending on the position in the room. During the day they "drown" in their background and dematerialise their volume, while at night, when turned on, they enhance the comfortable and warm atmosphere of the room.

Most of the furniture in the public spaces is also designed by Numen/For Use, the series of seating elements transform, 'Y' chair and 'C' chair produced by the famous Italian furniture company Moroso. Some of the furniture is made from massive oak, tables XYZ and models X-L and X-Z are from the Element program made by Intera, Zagreb. Intera also made the specialized foldable armchairs for terraces and chaises with integrated parasols. These products were made especially for the Hotel Lone and in the future will be available to the public. In this way, the development of this hotel becomes more than just another tourist project - it represents a driving force for the development of domestic production of designer furniture, which should serve as a role-model to all investors in Croatian tourism.

To avoid the classic ideal of Gesamtkunstwerk, the furniture in Hotel Lone is not bound to only one designer name or collection but rather consists of a variation of designer pieces. For example, the Tio collection by the design duo Chris Martin and Magnus Elebäck from Massproduction; Tropicalia chair by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso, the 1966 collection by Richard Schultz for B&B Italia; and an especially interesting piece we would like to single out is the conference chair GF 40/4 by David Rowland for Howe, which was designed more than 40 years ago and still represents a timeless model for a conference chair.

'In the hanging garden no one speaks'

It was designed by Silvio Vuji?i?'s installation "In the hanging garden no one speaks" adorn the wall of the lobby next to the entrance and rises up two floors. A type of bio-machine is made from supports of different lengths and sizes that carry the rhythmic arrangement of wooden baskets with live plants and create a form that resembles a curtain. Irrigation and fogging systems enable the sustainability of the installation. Plants such as Adiantum Radddianum and Asplenium Nidus were extensively planted.

Visual identity

Hotel Lone is a virtual shop window of the South-Eastern European creative industry. Its visual identity was designed by the agency Bruketa & ?ini? OM, with several awards one of the most lauded agencies in this part of the world.

The visual key is inspired by the central lobby, the most impressive volume of the hotel, which rises up throughout the entire building's height. This is the area where hotel's wings are juxtaposed with the adjacencies of most important facilities, this serves as the origin of all activities. It is the hotel's "heart". Therefore, that shape was chosen as the symbol that changes depending on which part of the hotel it is used for, or in other words, from which perspective it is observed.

The "heart" is the driving force of all activities in this inspiring place that will serve as a venue for relaxation as well as business meetings. Therefore, it was derived from illustrations which combine the disparate and makes up the basis for a huge poster 2 x 4.2 meters in size. All the applications of visual identity are derived from this big poster dividedinto twelve parts. Therefore, each application is part of the unique common picture, such as the hotel itself, made up from different parts of domestic creative industry, becoming its own shop-window.

Designers for the special features

Artist Silvio Vuji?i? created graphics on fabrics for the rooms. Installations in the hotel lobby were made by a group of innovative artists: Ivana Franke - "Room for running ghosts"; Silvio Vuji?i? - "In the hanging garden no one speaks" and the fashion studio I-GLE - textile compositions No1, No2, No3. Studio92 designed the Wellness & Spa centre, while Studio Kappo did Landscape design. The agency Bruketa & ?ini? OM conceived and oversaw the visual identity of the hotel.

It has won the Croatian Architects Association award Viktor Kova?i? for 2011 the award for the most successful architectural achievement in 2011

Fact Sheet

Project name: Hotel Lone

Architect: 3LHD

Program: Leisure, tourism

Status: Completed

Project start date: 01.09.2006

Project end date: 31.05.2010

Construction start date: 01.05.2010

Construction end date: 01.07.2011

City: Rovinj

Type: Invited competition