Das Triest Hotel

Class: First

Style: Modern design

Rooms: 72

Das Triest, one of Vienna’s first design hotels, was born in 1995 in an old coach station used by travellers en route to taking a cure in the Italian city of Trieste, which used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austrian architect Peter Lorenz and British interior designer Sir Terence Conran preserved parts of the original structure, combining elements of imperial elegance with sober lines. The modern architecture stands out amongst Vienna's mix of monumental facades and late 19th-century Art Nouveau buildings.

Cross-vaulted rooms give the building a distinctive flair, but rooms are casually broken up by Conran’s solid colour blocks of reds, yellows and royal blues, be it for the carpeting or the upholstered armchairs. Great care was also taken in selecting and pairing designer pieces by a host of renowned manufacturers and designers including Conran himself, B&B Italia and Casa Milano. The interiors strike a distinctly contemporary note: Every upholstered piece by the Austrian firm Wittmann is handcrafted. Sir Terence Conran’s choice of instantly recognisable near modern classics includes also Artemide light fixtures and table lamps by Philippe Starck for Flos. The clean-cut bathrooms feature stainless-steel fittings by CP Hart and charming porthole windows, which, along with railings and flag motifs in the rest of the hotel, create an urban emotional link to the port of Trieste.

Another highlight is one of the suites: a dining table and side chair set made of vertical steel wire rods by Warren Platner for Knoll adorns the space and is perfectly matched by the celebrated standing lamp Arco by Achille Casteglioni hovering over it. Specially commissioned black-and-white photographs of Trieste and Vienna underline the nostalgic link to Das Triestl’s former role in international travel.