The design hotel is a magnet attracting a new informed clientele as well as the most talented architects and designers in the world…
The design hotel is a magnet attracting a new informed clientele as well as the most talented architects and designers in the world . The impressive hotels designed by Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio, Mattheo Thun, Graft, King+Roselli or Yabu Pushelberg, have established what their designers consider the ideal residence. Design hotels have offered us the unique opportunity to be temporarily hosted in the living room, the dining room and the bedrooms of a luxury house that embodies with clarity the vision of the designer and architect for the ideal home. A vision disengaged from any regional limitations and the personal “signature” of an individual client who usually asks for a domestic architecture of the familiar and the deja vu.
The forthcoming exhibition Invisible Hotel (Athens, April 2005) makes one step further: It disengages the participating architects completely from any budget and pre-selected site. It arranges the meeting with the ideal client. Invisible Hotel presents 10 virtual projects designed by the best Greek avant-garde architects. The projects will be represented with digital renderings and animations (walkthroughs). These will provide the visitors with views of the entrance and lobby space, the room`s interiors as well as the elevations and other interior spaces of the hotel. Participating architects will be able to use materials distributed by Carteco. All the projects will be displayed on B&O Sound and Vision Systems. The creative work and art supervision as well as the web site is sponsored by KARAMELLA Advertising and Creative team.
The 1st prize of the Invisible Hotel show will be included in the exhibition “Hotel/Recreation” curated by architect Sotirios Papadopoulos in Milan, during the Salone del Mobile (13-18 April 2005). This exhibition will take place at Åx-Faema space, Via Ventura 15 (Lambrate), a 600 sq. m space, across the new headquarters of Abitare magazine and will be featured in Interni magazine.
In Athens, the exhibition Invisible Hotel will be hosted in the DESTE Foundation`s Centre for Contemporary Art at 8 Omirou St, Neo Psychico. The Deste Centre for Contemporary Art Center was inaugurated in May 1998, a former paper warehouse, renovated by New York architect/ designer Christian Hubert, with respect for its original identity.
The young architects participating in the Invisible Hotel exhibition (in alphabetic order): Andreas Angelidakis, Yiannis Aisopos, Iro Bertaki+Christina Loukopoulou+Kostis Panigiris, Panos Dragonas+Varvara Hristopoulou, Thanasis Hohlidakis, Eleana Horiti, Eleni Kostika, Stella Merminga+Vangelis Ravanos, Panos Nikolaidis + Errica Protestou, and Nikolas Travasaros. The exhibition is supported and organized by Carteco, one of the biggest companies of hotel equipment and architectural materials in Greece for the last 20 years. Curator of the exhibition is architect Memos Philippidis. Diathlasis (representing iGuzzini) co-organizes the exhibition and undertakes the lighting installation. The international bookstore Papasotiriou has agreed to finance the production of the Invisible Hotel catalog.
Two judging committees will evaluate the proposals of architects, granting rewards. The members of the Greek Committee are (in alphabetic order): Stavros Andreadis, President of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE), Harry Bougadellis Architect, Stelios Dimou Architect, Kostis Georgiou Painter/Sculptor, Babis Ioannou Architect, Dakis Ioannou Businessman and International Art Collector, Nikos Ktenas Architect, Dimitris Potiropoulos Architect, Alexandros Tombazis Architect, Tasos Zeppos Architect. The proposed members for the international Architectural Committee: Juergen Mayer Architect, Delugan-Meissl Architects and Joel Sanders Architect.
The exhibition will appear in Greek and foreign magazines, radio stations, Greek and foreign web sites (such as www.greekarchitect.gr, www.ktirio.gr). Journalists from architectural and design magazines such as Abitare, Domus, Architectural Review, will also be invited. A website www.invisiblehotel.com will be constructed, designed by Caramella, the total communication company that will create and supervise all the visual and graphic elements of the Invisible Hotel exhibition.
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