Hotel Focus - Seda Club Hotel, Granada
Crafted by New York-based Rockwell Group, the Seda Club Hotel in Andalusia seamlessly melds Granada’s Muslim heritage with modern luxury.
Words By Toby Maxwell
EVERY WEARY TRAVELLER will have experienced it at some time or another – arriving at the hotel to be greeted by an identikit interior that could be found in virtually any major city on the planet. While certain features and functions will always be expected by the international visitor wherever they go, there is much to be said for presenting a more site-specific experience.
Lounge areas give the feel of a private members club. Image Credit: Manolo Yilera
We take a trip around the world to take in some recent hotel projects and see how the locale has inspired the design. From a cultural melting pot in Grenada, to a taste of Australian heritage in Sydney and a business-focused hive of activity in Milan, these projects all prove that, in their own way, that comforting, luxurious and welcoming hotel feeling can take many forms.
NEW YORK-based architecture and design studio Rockwell Group has completed the interiors for the Seda Club Hotel in Spain’s Andalusia region, which is celebrated for its Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque architecture.
Hidden Away hotels specialise in hotels with an authentic link to their surrounding local history. For Seda Club Hotel, the historical inspiration was Granada’s centuries of Muslim rule, specifically the silk trade that once prospered there.
The La Pájara sky lounge has a mosaic floor using traditional local patterns. Image Credit: Manolo Yilera
For Rockwell Group’s Madrid Studio, which led the project, the starting brief was for the Seda Club Hotel to be an ultimate destination to gather, providing a cultural melting pot for global and European visitors. As such, the hotel has a luxurious social club feel, which has been achieved through the use of materials such as rich woods, bronze metal, velvet and marble that results in an opulent yet familiar aesthetic. The hotel provides guests with a series of interconnected spaces that are designed to feel exclusive, timeless, warm and irreverent.
The central lobby and lounge areas facilitate a private members atmosphere and the only way to enter the hotel is through a secret ‘members only’ library that widens out into the wood-panelled lobby lounge. In comparison to the opulent, rich materials seen in the guest rooms, the lounge is bold and features columns throughout and walls clad in a textured emerald plaster and velvet drapery.
The hotel contains just 21 guest rooms. Image Credit: Manolo Yilera
At the adjacent lobby bar, a light installation made of glass and bronze in the shape of archery bows decorate the top of the drinks display and curve up onto the ceiling. The bar is a prominent feature of the space, with marble top and leather die with a polished bronze back bar and antique mirrors on the walls.
La Pájara is a sky lounge and references the region’s numerous bird species, creating a colourful rooftop space with views of the nearby cathedral. A mosaic tile floor in a traditional local pattern is the backdrop to lush greenery in myriad ceramic pots.
The hotel contains just 21 guest rooms and at this smaller boutique scale, each one is unique. Beds have a custom leather headboard with a framework composed of brushed brass rods, from which lamps, mirrors and accessories are suspended. This hard structural effect is balanced using pattern and luxurious soft furnishings. Similarly, the chevron wood floors are softened with rugs and velvet drapery, while the closet walls are covered in a tweed-like fabric with red piping and further leather detailing to tie in with the bespoke headboards.
Tiling in the bathrooms references the glazed tile mosaics of the Alhambra, the local palace admired as the one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world. Guests also have the option to utilise the hotel spa, which takes its inspiration from Roman baths, complete with sculptured stone and classical forms. www.rockwellgroup.com
