Hotel De Pourtales | Agathe Labaye & Florian Sumi

The Hôtel de Pourtalès was built in 1839 by Félix Duban, the architect of Paris’s Beaux-Art building.

The project was designed, for the Swiss-born banker, diplomat and art collector Count James-Alexandre de Pourtalès. Nestled between the Madeleine Church and the Boulevard Haussmann, the building was designed in a neo-Renaissance style. Its arches, pilasters, friezes and even its interior courtyard evoke the ideal Tuscan palazzo.

Linked to the adjoining contemporary building, it was transformed into the luxurious No Address hotel in 2010, attracting a celebrity clientele.

The main focus was to create an aesthetic coherence between the very different architectural typologies: the traditional style of the 19th century and the modernity of the 21st. These two contrasting expressions are harmonized by a chromatic gradation, which firmly structures the interiors. While each space has its own specific character, they are all linked by a common identity, allowing clients to discern a familiar atmosphere throughout.

The hotel consists of two rooms and nine suites, the latter ranging in size from 95m2 to 367m2, which stretch over seven floors with a lush garden in the central courtyard and planted terraces on both the first and top two floors.

Warm, luminous tones, enhanced by touches of green and yellow, resonate with the abundant vegetation in the double-height Garden Duplex and the Sky Penthouse. The classical 19th-century atmosphere in the intermediary levels is combined with a variation of muted tones to create an intimate interior, which highlights the original wooden vaults and beams, while plush textures and fabrics create a cosy ambiance. The project’s most striking gesture, meanwhile, is the monumental fresco in the Garden Duplex, created in situ by the Parisian decorative painters, Redfield & Dattner.

More than anything, the aim was to create the impression of a home, an illusion enhanced by the fact that each suite comes with its very own kitchen. The meticulously hand-picked furnishings are both sculptural and resolutely modern. Iconic pieces by Charlotte Perriand, Gerrit Rietveld, Carlo Scarpa and Le Corbusier rub shoulders with the creations of a new generation of French designers, such as Garnier & Linker and Studio Pool.

They are mixed with a custom line of furniture, which she imagined especially for the hotel in tandem with the artist. Their design approach juxtaposes an industrial aesthetic with that of craftsmanship. To this end, they called upon the renowned Belgian marble specialist, Van Den Weghe, to create coffee tables, consoles, desks and benches, fitted with lacquered-metal legs.

Their homage to Félix Duban can be read implicitly not only in this collection, but also in her design for the hotel’s lobby, discreetly hidden from view in the inner courtyard. There, she embraces classicism by opting for a palette of “burnt” colours reminiscent of Pompei and commissioning a fresco for the pitched ceiling. She also installed a series of columns that accentuates the impression of symmetry and echoes the architectural elements of the building’s façades. The effect created gives the visitor the feeling of entering a private residence.