hotel daniel

Class: First

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 107

Berlin’s famed Studio Aisslinger has created a fully forward-looking hotel in downtown Graz, minutes from the Old Town. Winner of many architectural prizes, including multiple Red Dot Awards, Werner Aisslinger is the design force behind Berlin’s Loftcube, among others.

In Hotel Daniel he extends his modular vision both to facade and interiors. The exterior plays on multiplicity, a basic recessed cube set in a grid-work pattern, with echoes of IM Pei and Le Corbusier’s big-scale projects. Public spaces on the ground have been designed as a loft divided in three major parts: Black and green 50s style terrazzo floors in the entrance area are elegantly combined with Aisslinger’s Flori chairs.

The bar sits on the grey plaster floor, one part which doubles as the check-in counter in oak wood covered in a white Corian surface. A varnished teak floor in the lounge is surrounded by a grey broken natural stone wall – with an open fireplace set into it – and features a black Eames chair and an Arco lamp by Flos.

In Hotel Daniel's guestrooms, space maximisation is the foremost operating principle, as well as the creation of an enduring, non-trendy design. Multifunctional panels and surfaces create work and storage space, the whole forming an integrated living room rather than a collection of afterthoughts. The oak-framed bed melds seamlessly with the wall, a motif that finds itself repeated elsewhere, including the windowsill, which doubles as a desk/work surface.

Materials include oak wood, beige stone, felt in hues of grey and green and large coloured panels that lend simplicity and elegance to the design. Beige stone separates bed and bath areas and an abundance of wood helps provide an emphasis on comfort. A comfy feeling has been prioritised over the search for cool design, reflecting Aisslinger’s desire to create projects that have a lasting design appeal.