Sleeping with color
Heading to Paris and need a place to stay? Perhaps the Color Design Hotel is your cup of tea.
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"It’s perhaps a bit ironic, unless you’re quite up to speed on additive color theory, that the first impression of a place called Color Design Hôtel should be predominantly white. But as a palate (or palette) cleanser, white is the obvious choice — and as a contrast to the relatively gritty Bastille, one of Paris’s up-and-coming neighborhoods, the hotel’s stark minimalism is certainly striking."
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If you know French, there is an interview with the designer as she takes us through each space. I'd love for someone to translate for us, if they can!It feels a bit gimmicky to me. While I appreciate the use of color against a stark white background, the lack of balance turns my stomach as I try to imagine myself locked up in one of these rooms for an overnight stay. My lasting impression is one of inbalance.
image sourceLuckily, the carpets and beds were left in gray to temper the vivid colors injected in each room.
What do you think? Would you stay here and enjoy it?
What do you think? Would you stay here and enjoy it?
12 comments:
I could handle the bathrooms and I love colored lucite....but yeah....lots off eye tiring contrast!
Conceptually, it's a cool idea. Maybe it would be more palatable if just the common use areas of each floor were saturated with the color and respite from the intensity could be found in the rooms with minimal accents as a reminder.
As is, I could only stay on a blue floor. The yellow and red would drive me nuts.
Mais je peux traduire pour vous! Je me suis specialise en francais a l'universite.
She is merely stating exactly what you see. You're not missing out on anything,except maybe about the lighting. She points out the "lumiere gelatine" which is essentially surface coated colored filtered light which illuminates the white stairways and bathrooms on the different colored stories.
I'm with you Rachel, cet hotel est un petit peu stupide. The concept is great for an art installation, but not a hotel where you want to rest your bones!
As always, thank you for the best and freshest posts in an otherwise oversaturated, color coated blogosphere of reclycled information.
If I could actually fall asleep it would not matter! Thanks for the image. Hotels are always an interesting subject.
I just don't know know about this one! Too high concept, really doesn't say anything about colour to be. Colour should represent life and feeling and there are only four colours represented here. It feels extremely clinical the opposite of what I would want an environment to feel like.
thank you all for your great comments,everyone! i'm glad i'm not the only one who might have trouble with actually staying here. sometimes, concepts just don't translate into livable spaces, ya know?
Elizabeth,thanks for the translation and glad to hear we're not missing anything too in depth. Your compliment was greatly appreciated!
Hey, it's still PARIS! I could hack it if I had to. Enough French wine and sight seeing and I'm not sure I'd care what my hotel room looked like. lol! :~D
I say it needs an official, thorough testing by color experts -- who wants to come with?
Glad to see I'm in good company with my opinions on this hotel! I have to agree that conceptually it's a fun idea, but it just doesn't "feel" right. I find it amazing how cold a space can feel even with the use of bold color. There's something very institutional about this hotel - probably has a little to do with the architectural lines - but also the high contrast of colors and the excessive use of white.
What's frustrating is that a project like this gets so much attention - it's even called the "Color Design Hotel" - that it feeds into the opposing perception that architecture is best done without the use of color.
Thanks for sharing, Rachel. Great post, as always!
OK, I'm in the minority...I think this looks like so much FUN! As long as the beds and linens were top quality (always my top priority!) I would LOVE to stay here!
Trust you to find such a cool hotel to feature on your colour blog Rachel!! I'd stay there!
This would be so fun Rachel! I loved your interview with Maria.
I was watching a news story the other night about older hotels renovating to keep up with new construction. The perspective of major players, the classics, like W, Ritz, Hyatt, Hilton, and so forth, was that remodeling entails upgrading bathrooms but overall maintaining, clean, classic schemes, like light colored duvets and white pillows, basic low profile carpets, all in neutral tones. A spokesperson from Hyatt maintained that while new, trendy color schemes paired with ultra modern furnishings is exciting but doesn't stand the test of time in hotel-land. He said consumers come back to wanting the same NYC-penthouse-spa feel of neutrals, natural fibers, and dark woods with an exception being a modern bathroom, albeit still in whites/creams and "clea feeling."
Funny, just back fromthe UK we wandered into the Hyatt Heathrow by accident thinking it was our hotel. It's very austere, modern, very Berlin modern I'd say. The soaring glass and angles were cool but I wasn't too excited at the prospect of staying there--too edgey. We located our real hotel, a classic Sheraton down the road and I was happy to find a comfy lobby with plush chairs and cushy, eye soothing room straight out of a Restoration Hardware catalogue page. I had had enough modern design at the airport and enough eye candy in the city...
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