You can find the world’s best design hotel in Amsterdam, according to Time and Jetsetter.com. Hyatt Andaz won this first Design place in the annual Best of Best Hotel Award, the winning hotels represents world’s knockouts among the standouts. World’s best design hotel is designed by Marcel Wanders, the Lady Gaga of Dutch design, as mentioned by Jetsetter.com. Marcel Wanders designed the entire hotel including its carpet, which was created by Desso, the global carpet, carpet tiles and sports pitches company.
With the hotel’s decorative concept “Alice in Amsterdam”, the hotel reflects a modern view of Dutch history and local culture. Guests can delve into a piece of Amsterdam wherever they turn, whether it is through the artistic wallpaper in the guestrooms or the historic looking maps designed as rugs on the floor in the lobby. “The observatory carpet design goes back to old Amsterdam”, says designer Marcel Wanders, “to the idea of a library as a center of knowledge, to an overflow of information. The Dutch would travel all over the world from Amsterdam, so the carpet designs are old shipping maps, representing the universe and the stars that they used to navigate with.” Throughout the hotel, Wanders played with various sources of inspiration, integrating the different carpet designs in the hotel.
“We are delighted that Hyatt, a longtime customer of Desso, has received such a prestigious design nomination and at the same time very excited to see that our carpet designs find their way to world’s best design hotels”, says Roland Jonkhoff, managing director Desso. “At Desso our innovation programme is based on the three pillars of creativity, functionality and Cradle to Cradle design. Creating carpets that are part of an award winning design category represents exactly what we strive for in our creative designs”. In the public areas Desso supplied its custom made Axminster carpet, to create a vibrant, exciting, and open space that is unique in its design concept. “Our Axminster was a perfect choice”, says Roland Jonkhoff, “because the ground floor needed a smart flooring solution. The rugs and carpets needed to distinct the different areas”. Marcel Wanders explains: “It’s fun to play with size; it’s one of the elementary ways of making something exciting and different”. The Delft’s Blue colored rugs and carpets in the public spaces are decorated with maps rendered alongside typical Dutch images of tulips, historic portraits and townscapes.
The hotel rooms are all in line with the overall design concept of the hotel, the artistic and stylishly designed rooms reflect a view of Dutch history and feature small custom details to create an inspiring environment. Striking elements include the specially designed, Desso Wilton Woven carpets with the typical Wanders Baroque-signature. Designing the carpet Wanders says, “I try to make things that have characteristics which aren’t contemporary, and I don’t try to be modern, but I make things which last forever”. The combination of the design with the cut and loop textures provides for such a detailed pattern that bright colors were redundant; the carpet consists only of black and grey yarn colors.