Architect: MAROSI Miklós
The layout of the small city hotel is similar to that of the neighbouring residential buildings: a streetside wing and a courtyard wing, with a courtyard between them surrounded by open-air corridors. The architect has made a virtue out of necessity, the narrowing and expanding sequence of spaces creates a self-evident order in the building. The atmosphere suggested by the choice of name is primarily embodied in the use of colours and the design of the interiors.
The 68-room boutique hotel has been built in the Erzsébetváros district of Budapest, in the former Jewish quarter. Behind the street front of 9.5 metre width, there is a 50 metre long plot, bordered on both sides by residential buildings with open-air access corridors around their narrow courtyards. The building adjoins the firewall of the house on the left. The hotel rooms, located in two “towers”, are accessible through staircase-elevator blocks from the ground floor lobby. There is an atrium-bar with glass roof between the two towers, a pleasant sight in the evening light from the courtyard. The open-air corridors of steel structure, connecting the towers, are a delicate hint to the original Soho-feeling, but also to the world of the neighbours next door. At the same time, they provide a useful passage for the staff between the two towers and an emergency exit route between the fire zones.
Every required facility can be found in the 18 m2 area of the hotel rooms. The minimum of functions is provided with maximum comfort. The bathrooms have transparent, sandblasted glass walls, specially required by the developer. There is a reception area, a lobby, a breakfast area with a supporting kitchen, as well as a lobby-bar on the ground floor of the hotel. In the basement, there are staff changing rooms, storerooms, mechanical rooms, parking lots and a car lift. The rational arrangement of spaces is paired with an ambience of restrained eclecticism. Owing to their consistent application, the compound of materials and colours create a cheerful and pleasant, but unobtrusive interior. The clinker brick cladding of the facade is similar to that of many buildings located in this quarter, the use of different bonds and protrusions create a textured effect. The cladding runs up at the upper corners of the street facade, as if indicating the tectonic tension of being wedged in between the two neighbouring buildings.
Location: Budapest, VII. Dohány utca 64. Built: 2008 Architect: MAROSI Miklós Associate architect: SEBŐ István Interior architect: SCHINAGL Gábor Area: 2020 m2
