Places to stay created by world masters
Renaissance Fira Hotel – Barcelona, España
Known for his ultramodern buildings, French architect Jean Nouvel envisioned a hotel that would be a natural refuge where palm trees blend with the building structure like a gigantic vertical garden.
To make his hotel transform into a garden, Nouvel used 293 palm trees from 10 different types and 30 plant species from five continents. Renaissance Fira, in Barcelona, was opened in 2012 with 357 rooms, 11 events salons with capacity for over 1,000 people, and two cocktail bars, just in front of the city’s main convention center.
It is worth to say that the hotel is actually in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, another town in the south of Barcelona, away from the city center. The good news is that it is just beside the train station and in less than 15 minutes you are delivered in Plaza España, and then you are, really, in Barcelona.
About rates, as all hotels in Barcelona, they are quite under the influence of the city’s events – and they are many. In general, consider something starting in 140€ and with big possibilities to skyrocket depending on the season.
Hotel Le Corbusier – Marseille, France
Taken as the most influential architect from the 20th century, along with Frank Lloyd Wright, Oscar Niemeyer or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier designed the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille from 1946-1952 as a vertical city that would help solve the housing crisis in post-World War II Europe. It wasn´t the only one; Le Corbusier designed the other four Unités in Berlin, Nantes, Briey, and Firminy.
The building in Marseille shows the most recognizable traits of Le Corbusier’s brutalist architecture style, like the use of exposed concrete, straight lines, spacious rooms, besides the concept of “garden-city”, with nature around. The building has around 1,000 residents today while also being a 21-room hotel. It is located in the luxurious residential neighborhoods of the 8th arrondissement, 2 minutes from the beaches of Prado or Stade Vélodrome. Its rates are quite reasonable, in the range of 78€ to 158€ room per night.
Hotel The Langham – Chicago, Estados Unidos
The Langham, a synonym of luxurious hospitality businesses since 1865, has their Chicago hotel in the building designed by the great Mies van der Rohe, a pioneer in modern architecture. The Langham Chicago is pure sophistication and luxury in a skyscraper built on the shores of Lake Michigan. It originally housed offices (and still does on the upper floors), but now is converted into a 316-room hotel that opened in 2013.
You can check this piece of architectural design in full detail in this video by The Luxury Travel Expert channel on YouTube.
Hotel ME London by Melià – London, United Kingdom
The ultimate hotel that blends sophistication and contemporary touch in the very heart of London? The answer cannot be different: ME London, designed by Forster + Partners, for Meliã in 2012. ME London is in the West End Soho, surrounded by theatres and shops, besides some of the most coveted attractions in the British capital: Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, the Parliament, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. It has 157 beds with rates starting from 235£ for the basic Aura room (20-29 square meters).
Hotel Nhow – Berlin, Germany
This is new. Did you know about the existence of musical hotels? So, Nhow Berlin is the first of its kind in Europe. Designed by Russian-German Sergei Tchoban for NH Hotels,