Dorothea Hotel | Lissoni & Partners

Dorothea Hotel, Budapest, Autograph Collection (Marriott International)
Hungary
PROJECT BY LISSONI CASAL RIBEIRO / Architecture, landscape design, interior design

The project was born from the unification of three adjoining buildings, each with different stories, courtyards and facades, into a single building, seeking to maintain the correct balance between restoration and innovation. The intervention involved the city block that includes the Weber building (1873), the former Neo-Renaissance headquarters of the United Budapest Metropolitan Savings Bank, the Mahart building (1913), the art nouveau former headquarters of the Hungarian River and Sea Shipping Company and the Munnich building (1937), a modernist edifice with art deco and Bauhaus elements. The new structure accommodates a hotel and private residences.

The architectural project reconfigures the roofs into a new piano nobile that can be used by hotel clients, residents and the general public alike. The space opens out towards the city, affording unique views of this world heritage site, and with its clear contemporary expression overlaying the renovated historical façades, it is truly representative of this cosmopolitan city’s move towards modernity and innovation.
This architectural gesture carries over into the very heart of the building, transforming the three small enclosures into a single courtyard of generous proportions featuring an all-season covered garden open to the rest of the city and offering a wonderful prospect for the rooms fronting onto it. To maintain the luminosity of the interior spaces, the facades overlooking the courtyard are entirely in glass, whilst perimetral balconies and vertical elements in wood offer protection and enable the influx of light to be balanced with the need for privacy.

The historical context and the enhancement of important architectural features is also the starting point for the development of the hotel's interior design, where the interpretative matrix is again contemporary and introduces unexpected and sometimes ironic elements.
This approach can be read in the choice of materials, furnishings and decorative components, as well as in the selection of artworks and the photographic project, developed in collaboration with the local artist Zoltán Tombor, which extends throughout the hotel and interprets local styles and customs in a modern key.
The unification of different buildings has meant working on different heights, generating multiple-height spaces or volumes with more intimate proportions.
The lobby is distinguished by the large compositions of concrete bas-reliefs that reinterpret traditional Hungarian decorative patterning, and by the pre-existing staircase lined with blue ceramic tiling, a contemporary interpretation of Zsolnay tiles. The same idea is used for the shingles in different shades of blue that line the counter of the Anton Bar & Deli, a space characterized by unholstered surfaces and wood paneling and by the chromatic contrasts of the furnishings.
The other common areas (All Day Dining and bar) are located in the covered courtyard: a large square where water and plants define the spaces and which together with the design of the internal facades becomes an element of great impact and surprise.
The positive tension between cultural heritage and contemporaneity also defines the stylistic codes of the furnishings, materials and objects in the area dedicated to the 216 rooms and suites, which are divided between those facing the outside and onto the city (Heritage) and those overlooking the courtyard (Contemporary).

Design team:
Piero Lissoni with
Architecture: Miguel Casal Ribeiro, Mattia Susani, Ricardo Hernandez, Francesco de Matteis, Francesco Schiavariello
Interior design: Tania Zaneboni, Rodrigo Tellez Acosta, Roberto Berticelli, Greta Andreoni, Alejandra Corredor, Riccardo Accetta
FF&E project: Ilia D’Emilio, Marco Gottardi
Landscape design: David Pouliot
Render: Alessandro Massi Mauri, Alberto Massi Mauri, Alessandro Grasso
Models: Matteo Candiani, Lorenzo Volpato