“Amsterdam taxi drivers are the kind of people who tell you their opinion straight away. Every time we pass by the RAI Nhow Hotel, their unsolicited comments are always positive, without exception. As an architect, I take this as a great compliment.” The speaker is Reinier de Graaf, in charge of the design of this new icon of the Dutch capital.
Located in the Zuidas area, in front of the intersection of several highways, the new establishment of the NH chain, now associated with Minor Hotels Group, is a glass mass composed of three triangular prisms rotated on themselves. A dizzying volumetry, very much in the style of Pritzker Rem Koolhaas’s office.
Nhow Amsterdam RAI comes to solve the demand for places driven by the convention centers and corporate offices that were installed in this area in the south of the city.
Its 650 rooms spread over 24 floors and its 91 meters high made it the largest in the region known as Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg).
With impressive views of the Amstel River and its prisms pointing in different directions, the building seeks to symbolize the melting pot that the city has always been and continues to be, where just walking a couple of blocks is enough to hear conversations in different languages.
On the other hand, as the study describes, “the building pays tribute to ‘Het Signaal’, the triangular totem that marks the location of the Europaplein subway station, which at the time was the highest in the area.” Initially derived from the triangular limitations of the site, the unique volumetry is also an urban landmark, a beacon that allows residents and tourists to locate themselves by simply looking up.
The privileged location of Nhow Amsterdam RAI
With very good connections to the city center, the hotel is also a multicultural social meeting area that attracts both business travelers and tourists, thanks to its double-height lobby with meeting booths, a tiki-style bar in the first floor and magnificent restaurant of the auction, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
Structurally, Nhow Amsterdam RAI is made up of three stacked triangular prisms, with the central section rotated 90 degrees. The large eaves that emerge as a result, in addition to providing a series of covered terraces, create the impression of a building that defies gravity.
At street level the prisms rest on a double-height cylindrical base, where the lobby is developed, cushioning the impact with the environment.
Aluminum sunshades, spaced alternately depending on orientation, finish the façade. Each one has a triangular profile, with one side matte or polished, which gives the facades their lenticular quality, with a shine that alternates with the position of the sun.
In the standard floor plans, the square rooms are arranged longitudinally on the sides of the triangle, while those on the edges follow the shape of the floor plan, with windows on both sides. The 171 m2 penthouse suite occupies the 21st and 22nd floors and also has a 21 m2 private terrace.
Bleisure trend at the Nhow Amsterdam RAI hotel
Based on the new “bleisure” trend, a combination of “business” and “pleasure”, that is, the possibility of enjoying free time during a business trip and even briefly extending the stay, the Nhow chain is characterized by its disruptive interior design and the quality of its amenities.
In that case, as in the Nhow Frankfurt, it was directed by the Spanish David Zucker, who is also a visual artist. Together with his team, the designer conceived a storytelling based on the concept of multiculturalism. The symbol of the hotel is the koi fish, the orange color that also identifies Holland, since it is a species that sails all the seas.
In both the lobby and the bar, Zucker created multicolored floor-to-ceiling murals and stamped the floors with epoxy resin. Trained in London, the artist uses artificial intelligence techniques and 3D illustrations in his work.
Following the idea of the mixture of cultures, images that identify different nationalities merge on the walls: soldiers of the London royal guard, Mexican skulls, Hokusai reproductions, mandalas, African masks and dozens of figures that the viewer can discover as they go. that observes.
For Zucker, subtle symbols and details have been the driving force with which to transmit a complex concept such as the mixture of cultures and identities. “I could have chosen to create more obvious and easily understandable art for everyone, but that way the magic of people exploring the origin of how storytelling has been created is lost. I seek for my proposal to be understood not only in its most obvious essence but also in the most abstract dimension, which requires observation and reflection,” he explains.
The artist has also intervened in the rooms, considering that each edge of the triangular silver points to a different place in the world. In a bold bet, on the back of their bed guests meet emblematic characters: the geisha from Japan, a coya from the Andean culture, a Scottish expeditionary or a Zen master from India.
He also takes advantage of the triangular shape of the nuclei to print these figures on the walls, which guide them to the rooms. It seems to say, enough of getting lost in corridors that are all the same, here, as in Amsterdam, diversity reigns.