TravelMole - 22nd July 2015 by Valere Tjolle
'Pimp my Boat' love letters including S&M suite erected in Amsterdam harbour
Sexy new designer suites provide unique hideways on the water - revitalizing dockland area
"Amstel Botel is a 175-room floating hotel in Amsterdam's ex-shipbuilding, now hip NDSM Quay. What better way to make a sign for the hotel than to erect suites on the boat's deck, each made of one of the letters that form BOTEL?
Fashionable designers were called in and each chose a letter to personalize. Here is what they said…
The mission was simple: pimp my boat. The hotel boat was simply not cool enough to be moored at Amsterdam's NDSM shipyard. Over recent years the former shipyard has evolved into a creative hotspot.
Companies like MTV have set up offices in the old warehouses, a crane has been transformed into hip accommodation and numerous trendy cafes and restaurants have thrown open their doors. Amongst all this hipness, the floating hotel stuck out like a sore thumb: the ungainly boat was nothing more than a blot on the carefully cultivated NDSM landscape
So, the owner asked MMX architects to come up with a plan that would align the hotel boat with the NSDM feeling. Together with architect/film maker Jord den Hollander they came up with the simple yet brilliant idea: a deck-top addition in the form of the word BOTEL.
"Once upon a time ships were built here", says architect Michiel Van Pelt, indicating the concrete slope down which ocean-steamers slid into the water. "Which led us to the question: what makes a ship? When we realised it's the funnels, they determine the silhouette, it also dawned on us that that was what the hotel boat lacked. "
The designers considered the building of funnels 'too literal' although the ultimate solution is possibly even more literal. "It's a tale with a Venturian slant", says Den Hollander. "In fact what we've made is a Duck, but then one that says exactly what he is: the Botel. Blown up to huge proportions - that brings an element of surrealism to the entirety. It is what is and yet it isn't."
The letters serve as sculptures, logo as well as accommodation. Their generous dimensions, and bright red colour ensure that they are clearly visible from Central Station. Each letter houses a room. Each of the five rooms is clearly unique and the brainchild of a different designer.
The choice of font was central to the project's success says Van Pelt. "They had to be cartoon letters as they're the only letters that you can legitimately make a hole in, After all, we had to find a way of fitting windows in the T and L. We didn't want the initial impression to be one of a word, they had to be independent round characters."
The letters are made of polystyrene. The "puzzle pieces" are cut from styrofoam using a computer driven hot wire. Once they have been assembled, they are coated with a reinforced polyester façade product. Because the entirety is relatively light ( each letter weighs 8 tons ), it was easy to hoist on board. That said, 20 tons of extra steel was still needed for the transfer of the wind load into the boat's construction.
The project also brings added value for hotel guests who are staying in the boat's standard rooms, as they can now make use of the outside rooftop area that has been created. Lounging in your deck chair on the wooden deck, bathed in the red glow from the giant letters, you'd swear you were on board a cruise ship.
B - Richard Hutten - Skateboard Halfpipe
"The design grew from the context", says Richard Hutten of his plan for room B. "It's not a five star hotel, there aren't any business people and the guests are predominantly backpackers. As Homo Ludens (a playing man) I thought: you want to have something to play with. That's how I came up with a halfpipe, which also happens to fit perfectly in the round form of the B."
The interior is built entirely around a skateboarding theme. The staircase handrail features a short downward extension, perfect for grinding, and the split-level living area gives a bird's-eye view of the halfpipe. Happy discovery: a safety net has been strung to stop you falling down without sacrificing the lightness of the space.
On the assumption that skateboarders are pack animals on a limited budget, at the top there's a four-person bunk bed.
Not only the stairs, the table and pouffes, but also the skateboards and helmets have been designed especially for this project. To this, Hutten has added signature classics like the Domoor cups in the kitchen. The absence of colour is noteworthy. "I wanted a neutral space without any frills: it's all about skateboarding. Even though it's not part of the plan, graffiti is inevitable. Then I want, at least, to offer a white canvas."
O - Ronald Hooft - S&M Suite
'Pragmatic' is how Ronald Hooft describes his design for the O. "Of course, it's a rather curious interior space. You're not going to build a square bed or bathroom in it. Circular shapes immediately come to mind, as does the idea of going vertical to maximise the use of space." Hence the spiral shaped floor plan, in which the entrance hall with the storage and laundry areas, the living room and, at the very top, the bath and round bed are placed. The result, architecturally, is an unpretentious promenade so that as you move backwards and forwards throughout the space, you experience ever-changing views.
There is, however, a naughty twist to this initially innocent sounding interior. Inspired by L'Histoire d'O ( the Fifty Shades of Grey of the Fifties), Hooft decorated the room as an SM suite, with leather curtains that can be raised by means of winches and a huge mirror above the bed. "Black and skin colour went well with that theme but we've also played with the contrast between hard and soft materials: rough plastering juxtaposed with smooth furnishings, satin against sheepskin."
The bed is just right for a trio, and there are also three showers and washbasins. According to Hooft, this not only brings benefits of a sexual nature but also saves tourists "a huge amount of time."
T - MMX architecten - Captain's Room
Because the boat's lift shaft is located in the T, and the cantilevers meant that its construction would be the most difficult, the obvious choice to take on this letter was the coordinating firm of architects, MMX architecten. "Because it wasn't possible to use the foot of the T, we quickly decided upon a loft with a shutter so that in effect you shut yourself up like Jonah in the whale", recounts architect Michiel van Pelt. "The principal also asked us to create a meeting/reception area in the room and that's how we came up with the idea of the Captain's Room."
The room is, like the inside of a barrel, lined with oak planks. Various functions are concealed behind these oak planks. Press the remote control and the television appears. The wall on the other side hides the fold-up bed as well as the doors to the bathroom and the junction box. In the middle of the space there is a meeting table which is flanked by a generous kitchen with a stainless steel bench and 'funnels' that cause fresh air to enter and circulate freely.
It is not only the image of the omnipresent wood and leather that make this experience so unique but also their smell. According to Van Pelt, "Smell is a sense that's too frequently forgotten in architecture".
E - Jord den Hollander - Art Deco Movie Theatre Room
For Jord den Hollander, this project represented the realisation of a childhood dream: he could finally build a (small) movie theatre; room E is officially the smallest movie theatre in the Netherlands. "Unlike all the other rooms, the E doesn't have any round windows but two panorama windows", as the architect/filmmaker explains his choice for the letter. "That immediately appealed to me. The outward-facing cinematic image where you have an almost 360 degree view of Amsterdam and, opposite that, the unbroken side of the E, onto which an image of the reality is projected."
Den Hollander based his design on the classic Art Deco temples of yore. "Ealing Studios in London epitomises this. The red and blue colours, the curved stairs - to me it's the ultimate movie theatre." A second source of inspiration was the little booking office of the former Cineac movie theatre in Amsterdam (Jan Duiker, 1934). The bathroom, clad in aluminium, is an ode to that extinct building.
Movie theatre E has the complete collection of the nearby Eye film museum at its disposal.
L - Moriko Kira - 2 directional suite
"What's attractive about the L is that it has two directions. This immediately gives it a certain spatial quality," says architect Moriko Kira. When embarking on her design she first thought about her own hotel experiences. "What strikes me when I'm travelling is that you spend an inordinate amount of time in transit: at an airport, in the metro, in an anonymous hotel; in non-places. I wanted the opposite of that: to make a specific space."
The location of the Botel, on the opposite side of central station, with the centre behind it, offered opportunities. "It literally gives a certain distance to the city. I used that established fact to create a moment in the here and now: a calm space where you can take five."
By bundling the bathroom, the technology and the sleeping floor (with futon) in a piece of free-standing "mega furniture", you experience the L as a continuous space - an effect that is further reinforced because all the corners are rounded. Sitting, dining and work areas arise naturally around this sculpture. "For me, that idea, that you can be somewhere and still find yourself in different places, is crucial", says Kira.
The room is painted throughout in a monochromatic soft grey. A special detail is the shutter above the bed, designed by Tomoko Taka: a perspex circle, covered in blue paint, a work of art as a calm sea.
International footballer Edgar Davids with the Love Letters
Owner Sandra Chedi has just opened up another project on NDSM Quay - on another ship! The four-master training ship Pollux has been reinvented as a floating restaurant specializing in Pacific Rim food"