Lissoni + Urquiola. Elle Decor Grand Hotel

Ph. Vincenzo Lombardo

During the first edition of the Fall Design Week in Milan, a project-installation in the fashion district, conceived by two international architects: Piero Lissoni and Patricia Urquiola.

“ELLE DECOR GRAND HOTEL” is the project-installation born out of an idea by Elle Decor Italia, the international design and trend magazine, set up in the rooms of Palazzo Morando – Costume Moda Immagine, in Milan, at 6 Via Sant’Andrea, today home to a museum dedicated to the city and the civic collection of Costume and Fashion.

As highlighted by Livia Peraldo Matton, editor-in-chief of Elle Decor Italia: “The idea of creating ELLE DECOR GRAND HOTEL is the result of reflection on the evolution of the hotel concept, which we have dealt with in the pages of our magazine. Over the past twenty-five years, we have indeed seen a true transformation in hotel design. Boutique and design hotels have appeared, projects with strong identity have become widespread, not just perfect from a hospitality point of view, but also places of experience.”

Ph. Stefano Pavesi

Archiproducts is supporting the event as a media partner.

"For us, this is another important step in the relationship with Elle Decor, both nationwide and online. Moreover, it is a valuable insight on the world of contract and hospitality that has always been explored on Archiproducts and Archilovers”, Enzo Maiorano, Archiproducts co-founder.

Ph. Stefano Pavesi

ELLE DECOR GRAND HOTEL offers visitors a personal experience, thanks to rooms especially for socialising, reading, wellness and hospitality, leaving them free to explore bedrooms, lounges and gardens. Two exceptional names behind the project also in the hotel sector: Piero Lissoni, who designed the project for the public areas, conceived as those of a “Hôtel Particulier”, and Patricia Urquiola who designed the more private rooms, the “Stanzas”.

Ph. Stefano Pavesi

“I have conceived a hotel that is an aristocratic hostel rather than a hotel”, says Milanese architect and designer Piero Lissoni, ”simply changing the aesthetics of the interiors and using the style code of Italian architects at the turn of the seventeenth century, a particularly bright period with very strict architectural proportions. The whole project works on evident contrasts, classic with modern and modern that dialogues with history.”

Ph. Vincenzo Lombardo

The rooms he has designed, given the French names Accueil, Fumoir, Bibliothèque, Café & Restaurant, Séjour and Jardin, are furnished with contemporary design pieces that are in relation with facades and interiors of historic palazzos reproduced with photographic elaborations on the walls.

“I thought of the Grand Hotel bedroom”, says Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola, “avoiding an interpretation in serial, repetitive ‘sample room’ style, preferring to imagine a series of rooms as the separate moments in a story. This led to the ambiguity of the title: ‘Stanzas’, which sounds like a Spanish word but instead refers to the various verses in ‘Stanzas in Meditation’ (1929), a collection of poems by Gertrude Stein. They came back to me as the idea for this project was taking shape. The furnishings are therefore a series of fragments, interpreting the many ways of personally experiencing the interiors of a room in a Grand Hotel: a room for one, two, three, four, five…"