above: the upside-down room from the propell
Ever wonder what it would be like to live upside-down, sleep like a vampire or break out of prison? More and more hotels are breaking out of the tradition of cookie-cutter rooms and are moving toward unique one-of-a-kind artist-driven room designs. Here are sixteen such rooms that span the spectrum from clever and kitchy to sexy and surreal.
Watching horror movies one has to be a little bit curious about whether it is comfortable for vampires to sleep in attic coffins. Now those who are so inclined (or who prefer partying at night and sleeping during the day) can experience this vampire room first hand at the Propeller Island Hotel.
Prefer something less kitchy and more romantic? Perhaps the mirror room of the same hotel is for you. Mirrors are typically considered an erotic addition to a hotel room but this example carries the principle to the extreme with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling mirrors spanning the diamond-shaped space.
Mirrors too cliche and traditional for your tastes? How about a room with elegant furnishings and also complete with not one but two cages. Perhaps the most amazing (and strange) aspect of this particular room is the option to lift curtains and put on shows for one’s neighboring guests.
Up for more of an adventure? One room is outfitted as a surrealistically colored jail cell reminiscent of a cartoon lockup. At the end of the night, guests are encouraged to ‘break out’ of the room by punching and escaping through a hole in one false wall.
The symbol room might be more appropriate for the reserved and intellectual clientele. With over 200 unique wood panels, this room provides endless black-and-white food for thought as well as arrangeable furniture objects that can be turned over and moved to create personalized configurations.
The Arte Luise Kunsthotel (or Art Hotel) is also located in Berlin but takes less of a themed approach, with a variety of rooms that are the unique realization of singular artists’ visions. As you can see from the images above, some of them are abstract, others playful and still others simply bizarre. Best of all, each time someone stays in one of these creative rooms the artist gets a percentage of the payment.
Like the Kunsthotel, the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, Canada relies on one artist per room with remarkably varied results. One room (left) purports to simulate a meeting place for a “lesbian separatists commune,” another celebrates Canadian culture and kitsch (upper right) while yet another is simply the artists’ meditation on the history of Victorian-era English culture (lower right).
The Max Hotel in Seattle likewise boasts the work of artists but in this case emphasizes local art and is not limited to painting and sculpture. Shown above, local art is placed in rooms while photography and other media are applied both within rooms as well as in halls and other common spaces. A compilation of all of the art in the hotel is also available for purchase.
For those who enjoy art but aren’t sure about sleeping in it, the Benesse Art Site Naoshima in Japan provides a healthy compromise: a hotel attached to a beautifully constructed gallery of modern art. Visitors can interact in common eating and museum spaces while retiring to their own more conventional hotel rooms with sparse and minimalistic art.
