KANINGOS 21 Hotel - [Athens]

Kaningos 21 hotel is located on the northwest corner of Kaningos Square in the centre of Athens. The existing hotel was constructed in1965 and underwent a structural reinforcement and aesthetic refurbishing in 2004 by META architects.

Seventy-two rooms on 7 stories occupy the spaces between the double height lobby with mezzanine hosting a reception, cafe, restaurant and congress halls and the roof with its bar-restaurant offering views to Lycabettus Hill and the Acropolis.

A vanilla marble from Leivadia and a warm beige marble from Ritsona are used for the reception area and the mezzanine restaurant. The same combination of materials is applied in all the corridors for the room levels. The elevators are cladded in translucent glass panels. All the bedrooms have wooden floors and plasterboard walls. The bathrooms a combination of white Kozani marble and grey Aliveri marble. The curtain wall facade employs a dramatic red limestone, "Travertino Rosso'.

The architectural approach to this project is sculptural. The thick columns and repetitive, recessed openings giving the impression that the building has been carved out of a mass of stone. These large openings establish a relationship between each room-cell and the city outside, especially the rooms with views along the axis of the Acadimias Str.

The overall density celebrates the square, marking one of its corners in red. Similarly, the implementation of a light study creates an icon of the building at night.

sources:
http://www.kaningos21.gr/
http://www.meta-arch.gr/pages/shops/set_en.htm

Semiramis Hotel - [Athens]

The Semiramis Boutique Hotel is situated in the heart of the green and rich suburb of Kifissia.

The famous industrial designer Karim Rashid was commissioned by Dakis Joannou to design and create Athens' first visionary design hotel. Rashid's design philosophy stems from a refusal to accept the day-to-day environment.

Semiramis consists of 52 rooms: 42 balcony rooms with pool or park view, 6 poolside bungalows, 3 penthouse studios, 1 semiramis penthouse suite. All rooms feature in-room cable TV, DVD and CD supported by built-in sound system, portable phones, high-speed internet access, air conditioning, multi-bar, and safe box.

Pool bungalows are built independently from the main building and have easy access to the pool and their own private garden. In-room facilities include rotating 42-inch plasma televisions with stereo sound, cordless headphones, and remote-controlled utilities such as hvac, curtain control, 2.4 GHz cordless phones, and digital locks.

As another unusual touch, visitors may, by pressing a button, scroll messages on their doors such as 'privacy' or 'please make up my room'.There is also video projection, holopro glass technology, dot matrix LEDs and other digital projection media throughout the hotel.

The Semiramis offers a meeting room of 150 square meters with glass facades

"Hotels today make you feel like you're living in the previous century. That's the last thing I want to do." - Karim Rashid

Official site:
http://www.semiramisathens.com