COMPILED BY Danielle Weakley PHOTOS Fridolin Ful, Orinana (supplied)
Berlin is a city that hums with youth, energy, innovation and creativity – all made marvellously apparent in its hotel scene.
KPM Hotel
Set within the grounds of the 250-year-old Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin (Königliche Porzellan- Manufaktur), this slick new hotel belies its historical address. The ultra-modern building, made up of futuristic-looking interlocking steel cubes with floor-to-ceiling windows, has already picked up several design and architecture prizes since opening. While the rooms and shared guest spaces are minimalist, understated and achingly chic, they also give more than a passing nod to their location, with handmade porcelain sculptures making a cool – yes, really! – statement throughout. KPM‘s rooftop terrace offers soaring views – and Tiergarten, Berlin’s largest park, is a few minutes’ walk away.
Wilmina
This addition to Berlin’s dynamic hotel landscape is a sensitive restoration and reinvention of a former courthouse and women’s prison in a 19th-century listed building in Charlottenburg. The prison was closed and abandoned in the mid-1980s; now the space is a hidden retreat of just over 40 rooms in the heart of the city, sheltered from the surrounding buzz by wildly lush courtyard gardens. Alongside the beautifully appointed suites in the cellblock is Amtsalon – a space for art and culture, housed in the erstwhile courthouse. The two are connected via an extension that was once the lock yard, and today is home to Wilmina’s restaurant, Lovis – a stunningly contemporary German kitchen.
Orania Berlin
You’ll find Orania in a thoughtfully restored building that dates back to 1913. The space originally boasted a vibrant café that was hugely popular as a concert venue, and this cultural meeting point is something that Orania Berlin has chosen to recreate. The place to hole up in is the Literary Salon, overlooking the Berlin skyline – or the super-cosy Living Room, with its open fireplaces and kitchen. The hotel’s MD – a Michelin-starred chef – has curated a menu filled with eclectic sharing plates that draw on Asian, European and South American cuisine. At the bar, the cocktails are artisanal and the backdrop is often live jazz – and there’s even a grand Steinway in the building for playing.
AMANO East Side
The location of this hotel – already dubbed a favourite for design lovers on a budget–is enviable: set in the hip Friedrichshain neighbourhood, it is within walking distance of Berlin’s legendary nightlife and its East Side Gallery, the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall. The AMANO East Side boasts good nightlife of its own, with a roster of late-night DJs, a killer cocktail menu and a summer rooftop bar that offers staggering views of the TV Tower. The rooms are designed as intimate little boltholes in moody greys, with warm hardwood floors and stylish marble accents.
Hotel Luc
Part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, this new boutique hotel takes up residence opposite the French Cathedral, showcasing the grandeur of Prussian-era Berlin. And it does this quite literally, as deep Prussian blue runs through the design aesthetic of the hotel, featuring in everything from the tongue-in-cheek black-and-white vintage photography that adorns the guest rooms to the vibrant-hued corridors, accent walls and even the signage. The philosophy behind Autograph Collection is to handpick hotels that are intimately connected to the history and culture of their surrounds – and Hotel Luc’s reinvention of the city’s Prussian heritage, with such elegance and quirk, does just this.
Looking for more on local design or travel? Sign up to our weekly newsletter, here.