New Hotel Athens is a living piece of art right in the heart of modern Athens, 200 meters from Syntagma (Constitution) Square, with interiors by Brazilian design icons Humberto and Fernando Campana, the first ever hotel project of the award winning designer duo, .
For Greek Cypriot arts patron and owner of Yes! hotels, Dakis Joannou, New Hotel Athens has been a true labor of love. After all, he has commissioned them for their eco-sensitive ethos and the use of contemporary handicraft practices and local idioms. After picking apart the tired Olympic Palace Hotel, which was built in the heart of modern Athens in 1958, he set about restructuring it, piece-by-piece, without discarding anything.
Thanks to interiors by Brazilian visionaries Humberto and Fernando Campana, who have earned a reputation for creating living art from cast-offs and spares, key elements of design and culture collide on every floor. From the spa and fitness area to the top-floor terrace, which affords one of the best views in Athens, the designs are consistently intense. Each of the hotel’s 79 rooms and suites engages its guests by making them feel like they’re a part of the vivid in-room installations. And everything here is inspired by three traditional Greek themes – Karagiozis, a shadow puppet; the “evil eye” used to guard against ill-omen; and the Athens of years gone by.
The result is an intriguing 79-room establishment, where every public space and every floor has been creatively re-NEW-ed to include remnants of the former Olympic Palace Hotel. The interiors are simply outstanding, the unusual custom-made furniture and handmade fixtures making guests feel that they live and breathe in a major art installation.
And as for hotel’s the bar/restaurant, NEW TASTE is a culinary haven, with its welcoming ambience, fabulous seating, and simply excellent food. So, should you enter this world of high design, with the Campana brothers showcasing their trademark approach at its very best (with the help of students from the local University of Thessaly), you pretty much won’t need another proof. Athens is -against all odds- alive. And kicking. Always.
New Hotel Athens Gallery
