hospitalitystyle.com

(June 2010) posted on Tue Jun 29, 2010 EDT

Korean-born artist Seo is the muse behind the museum experience in Park Plaza Hotels’ newest lifestyle offer.

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By Mary Scoviak

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The idea of hotel as gallery may make design headlines, but it's not news to art'otel. For more than 20 years, this boutique chain (now part of the Park Plaza Hotels brand family) has been exploring the possibilities of fusing art with hotel design. Works of a signature artist are the core of each of its seven hotels' aesthetic. The latest addition, the 218-room art'otel in Cologne, Germany, is a showcase for Korean-born artist Seo.

Both the color palette and lines of the furnishings flow from Seo's trademark collages and vibrant colors. Curved chair backs echo the undulations of seas filled with fish, crenellated hillsides—even the gentle roundness of a blouse sleeve. White provides a strategic framework for bright geometric seating in the public spaces. In the guest rooms and suites, it's the major statement, accented only by a lipstick-bright red throw on the bed and the dynamic paintings that serves as focal points. Textures reflect her use of colored rice paper torn into strips to create her dramatic landscapes and the figures that populate them.

As you'd expect, the art'otel Cologne, like its style-setting sisters, plays the minimalist design card to keep guests' vision trained on the major works displayed in the hotel. Furnishings follow a low profile so that sight lines are clear. Walls serve as design elements in themselves. For example, a thin slice of white wall between the bar and lounge creates gallery space and allows for a more intimate experience in each area.

Design is meant to set up the art. So, in the restaurant, a 39-ft. painting dominates a room that is otherwise elegantly neutral and chicly modern. The all-white en-suite bath or shower rooms are the perfect canvas for a brightly colored glass window dividers that replicate Seo's art. Most of the hotel's windows are light pink, blue and yellow compositions in stark contrast to the concrete walls.

That package, says Boris Ivesha, Park Plaza Hotels, equals differentiation in crowded markets. “The hotel's playing homage to one specific artist appeals to a very individual and creative guest whose lifestyle revolves around culture and heritage,” he says. “Art'otel guests are art enthusiasts who, when travelling for business or pleasure choose to stay in a hotel where they can literally sleep under an original canvas and immerse themselves in a world so close to their hearts.”