Hasta La Ideas

Record a hit when you visit Europe’s first music hotel

In recent years travelers have shied away from traditional hotel chains in favor of more intimate boutique establishments, but the newly-opened Nhow Berlin aims to change this with a Karim Rashid-designed refuge dedicated to music. Billed as Europe’s first hotel with a state-of-the-art recording studio and guitars on the room service menu, the interior’s surreal setting combined with the seemingly physics-defying architecture serve as a catalyst for late-night jam sessions and impromptu DJ sets.

Architect Sergei Tchoban worked with Rashid to implement their lavish design without disturbing the existing industrial style of the surrounding buildings on the river Spree, nestled between Berlin’s Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg neighborhoods,. Tchoban’s solution maintains the building’s stoic lines, but he throws in a shiny section of the hotel—the 8th to 10th floors—that juts out almost 70 feet out from the building for unexpected delight.

The amenity that inspired the idea behind Nhow Berlin is its Music Sound Floor. Overseen by Lautstark, a music agency that runs Hansa Studios where artists like David Bowie have recorded, the area includes analog mixing and 5.1 digital suites that visiting professional musicians can use in the tradition of heading to the city to record their next hit singles.

Fans and the more music-challenged shouldn’t feel left out. Guests-slash-amateur rock stars who would otherwise riff it out on air guitars can just ask reception to bring them a real Gibson.

Rashid brings a whimsy that turns the hotel into what can be best described as an amusement park for lovers of glossy, hyper design. This aesthetic is reflected down to the color of the rooms, where guests have the option to stay in a room outfitted in pink, blue or gray. Furniture throughout the common areas—including the lobby and restaurant—take on a neon color scheme, with wallpaper and carpet patterns clashing in a stimulating way. Everything is so precisely done that the spaces look like computer renditions brought to real life.

Rooms run from €170 for a standard room to €2,500 for the Nhow suite.

Some photos taken by Patricia Parinejad, for Arch Daily.

Voici le nouveau spot de publicité commandité par Google Germany, mêlant 3D et stop-motion autour du concept du tour du monde et de leur outil “Google Streetview”. Un travail très réussi de l’agence Kolle Rebbe, produit par Sehsucht Berlin et dirigé par Mate Steinforth.

Previously on Fubiz

• Google Street View
• Louis Vuitton City Guide 2011
• Little Big Berlin

Gastrotype Berlin, gran lavoro di Nacho Gallego.

Chalk it up to the Germans’ noted reputation for being efficient. The fourth annual Gallery Weekend is Berlin’s version of a power punch for denizens of the art world: 40 galleries and 40 openings over the course of three days. But beyond the obvious marquee names such as Damien Hirst at Haunch of Venison and Olafur Eliasson at Martin Gropius Bau, knowing where to go can be the paradox of choice. Here’s a shortlist of artists that stand out from the bunch.

Andreas Gursky is a visual artist of Goliath proportions. Taking Google Earth-esque images and rendering them into huge, powerful photographs, his new series “Ocean I-VI” is a jaw-dropping panoramic interpretation of water, land and the mysterious subaquatic depths that ripple in between. “Ocean I-IV,” Sprüth Magers Gallery, Oranienburgerstr. 18, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 4-9 pm; exhibition until 9 June 2010.

New work from the Jerusalem-born artist Ariel Schlesinger—a talented arsonist whose sly tricks with fire spit up in the least likely of places—promises to make you look twice. “Reverse Engineering,” Galerija Gregor Podnar, Lindenstr. 35, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 10 am-3 pm; exhibition until 5 June 2010.

American painter Elizabeth Peyton‘s bold, highly stylized portraits of cultural icons such as Kurt Cobain, Jarvis Cocker and Matthew Barney have always commanded a loyal following and demonstrated her relevance, beginning with her first solo exhibition at New York’s hip Chelsea Hotel. “New Paintings and Drawings,” Neugerriemschneider, Wallstr. 85, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 10 am-3 pm; exhibition until 2 July 2010.

“The Eskimos have two hundred ways to say snow. I have three million ways to say no,” Norwegian artist and writer Matias Faldbakken has publicly opined, and this stubborn streak surges through his work of prints, installations and moving images that crackle with political overtones. “Matias Faldbakken,” Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Kurfürstenstr. 12, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 10 am-3 pm; exhibition until 4 June 2010.

Who better than German photographer Tobias Zielony—known for his stark, stripped-down photographs of teenage delinquents—to tackle the story of “Le Vele di Scampia,” a ’70s urban housing project in Naples that proved to be one of the biggest failures in recent history? His 2009 film splices together over 2,000 photographs shot at dark at the complex, producing a nine-minute animation that starts, stutters and suspends erratically through time to jarring effect. “Film and Photographic Series,” Koch Oberhuber Wolff, Brunnenstr. 9, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 10 am-3 pm; exhibition until 3 June 2010.

Picking the brains of Gestalten‘s book editors and designers, Youyoung Lee reports to Cool Hunting on what inspires them.

This giant wall was built in Berlin for the annual Bread and Butter trade show (which closed late last month).

System 180 is best known for its cutting-edge steel tube furniture, however they’ve been able to apply the same technology to build this 380 meter long wall. The project utilized 12,500 meters of steel tube and 5,000 square meters of tarpaulin to enclose the large arching face of the former Berlin Central Airport. More of their interior projects can be seen on their site.

© Mila Hacke, Berlin

© Mila Hacke, Berlin

© System 180