Designer Philippe Starck has unveiled the surreal nine-storey Maison Heler hotel in Metz, France, which is topped with what appears to be a 19th-century mansion.
Fully conceived by Starck, the hotel aims to tell the surreal story of Manfred Heler, an imaginary man whose mansion was thrust nine storeys into the air.
▲ 酒店的顶部是一座复刻的宅邸
The Maison Heler hotel is topped with a replica mansion
"Manfred Heler has inherited his parents' beautiful house," explained Stark. "As an orphan, he finds himself all alone, in this mansion surrounded by a large park. Everything's going well for him, until he starts to get bored."
"To cope with this boredom, he tries to invent everything," he continued. "An extraordinarily rigorous and inventive man, he doesn't necessarily succeed in everything he undertakes, but it's always done with intelligence and poetry, guided by a naive desire to create meticulously at all costs."
▲ 在故事中,这座宅邸是Manfred Heler的家
In the story, the mansion was Manfred Heler's home
这座完全包裹着金属的宅邸,现在矗立在一个九层高的整体式塔楼顶部。它内部包含餐厅、酒吧和活动空间。
在 Starck 的故事中,宅邸升到空中时,Heler 就在里面。
This mansion, which is entirely clad in metal, now stands on top of a nine-storey monolithic tower. It contains a restaurant, bar and event spaces.
In Starck's tale, Heler was in the mansion when it was raised into the air without warning.
▲ 现在这里包含一家餐厅和一家酒吧
It now contains a restaurant and bar
"It's springtime," said Starck. "He's daydreaming in his armchair. Suddenly, the earth begins to tremble."
"He doesn't understand what's happening," he continued. "He looks around and realises, to his aghast, that he's going up in the air, along with his park, his house and his armchair."
"He climbs and climbs and climbs, until the shaking stops," he added.
"Then there's silence. Manfred is high above the city. His house has been extruded: as if a cookie-cutter had arrived from below, cut off the Earth's cap and mounted it vertically."
▲ 室内设计借鉴了19世纪的宅邸风格
The interiors were informed by 19th-century mansions
The mansion interiors were designed to evoke the 19th-century spaces of Heler's fictional home.
Throughout the rooms, "whimsical objects" were placed that were designed by Starck. These include a crystal hammer, plaster anvils, double-ended axes and inverted rocking chairs.
▲ 客房的外观呈现出截然不同的风格
The guestrooms have a dramatically different appearance
Below the mansion, the nondescript tower contains 104 bedroom suites.
The rooms were designed to contrast with the eclectic spaces in the mansion. Each has large windows, exposed concrete ceilings and plain white walls that can be largely covered in pale, full-height curtains.
▲ 它们被斯塔克形容为“斯巴达式”
They were described as spartan by Starck
Starck 解释道:“它们拥有一种近乎斯巴达式的精神。”
“剥离了任何肤浅的东西,每种材料都彰显出自己的颜色:棉花的白色,天花板和墙壁上混凝土的灰色。”
"[They have] an almost spartan spirit," explained Starck.
"Stripped of any superficiality, where each material asserts its own colour: the white of cotton, the grey of concrete on the ceiling and walls."
▲ La Cuisine de Rose 位于地面层
La Cuisine de Rose is located on the ground floor
酒店的接待处位于地面层,旁边是一个名为 La Cuisine de Rose 的餐厅,这个餐厅是献给 Heler 虚构的爱人。再次与宅邸形成对比,这个餐厅拥有明亮的室内空间和深色家具,并通向一个种满树木的露台。
The hotel's reception is located on the ground floor alongside a restaurant named La Cuisine de Rose, dedicated to Heler's imaginary lover. Again contrasting the mansion, the restaurant has bright interiors with dark furniture and opens into a tree-filled terrace.
The hotel is the latest surreal building by Starck, who recently designed a "strange and surrealist" olive oil mill and museum in Andalusia.