This Chic Berlin Hotel Marries Prussian Grandeur With Quirky Millennial Charm

Hotel Luc in Berlin’s central Mitte district is a designer’s delight. A part of Marriott’s Autograph Assortment, the 70-room, 22-suite boutique lodge is strategically positioned reverse the French Dom cathedral, showcasing the grandeur, magnificence, and luxurious of Prussian-era Berlin.

This central theme flows via the lodge’s design aesthetic, which is centered round a deep, sensuous Prussian blue and options numerous luxurious and trendy touches, from the tongue-in-cheek pictures that adorns the lodge visitor rooms and corridors to the lodge’s unofficial mascot, the common-or-garden potato. (Extra on that right here.)

We spoke with Moritz Helmholz, High quality Supervisor, Resort Luc, in regards to the lodge’s design inspiration and its nod to Prussian formality and attraction.

Resort Luc has a powerful design aesthetic, centered across the Prussian blue that accents each nook of the lodge. May you inform me a bit in regards to the inspiration behind the lodge’s design ethos? The place did the concept originate?

Resort Luc is a part of Autograph Assortment Lodges, which handpicks resorts which can be intimately related to the historical past and tradition of their environment, and, in flip, change into a part of the locality’s cloth.

Impressed by one of many model’s curatorial rules—“Sense of Place”—Resort Luc confidently confronts its Prussian heritage. The lodge calmly and elegantly phases the fascinating juxtaposition of Prussian austerity and noble cosmopolitanism on the Gendarmenmarkt. As a standard thread, this very pressure runs via the inside, the sensual pleasures, and the philosophy of the home. With native ease, we reinvent the Prussian lifestyle for the zeitgeisty Friedrichstadt.

I beloved studying about King Frederick the Nice and his potato command of 1756! There are refined nods to Outdated Fritz and his potatoes all over the place within the lodge—might you inform me a bit extra about how this concept sprouted and why the choice was made to deal with the potatoes?

We stand by our Prussian heritage—however take it with a humorousness. We aren’t a museum, however provide friends a gateway to historical past. We depend on free interpretations and play with the battle areas of yesterday and in the present day. Due to this fact, the potato is the right approach to signify all these values. It’s a easy product with an extremely lengthy historical past and a particular significance in Germany. It combines the historical past of Frederick the Nice, in addition to Prussia, with modernity, which is mirrored within the lodge. Additionally it is a twist as Germans are satirically referred to as German potatoes when attempting to explain the standard German conduct.

How do you efficiently weave potatoes into such a sublime and royal design aesthetic for the lodge? What challenges did this current? And the way did you overcome them?

The very first thing friends see when coming into the foyer is a basket of potatoes, made solely for us from high-quality KPM (KPM stands for Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur Berlin and interprets to The Royal Porcelain Manufacturing facility) porcelain.

A QR code informs friends in regards to the historical past of the potato and its significance for Resort Luc. The basket sparks conversations the place we take them on a brief journey into the historical past of Prussia. Whereas we accompany friends to their rooms, we present them varied, partly hidden clues, which introduce the friends to the environment and character of the lodge. It was difficult to offer a particular product just like the potato a luxurious contact, however we introduced it in a gold shade all through the lodge’s art work to make it particular.

Are there sure design touches that friends might not in any other case discover that you would be able to inform us about? Maybe one thing very refined however that provides to the general feeling?

Friedrichstadt is among the oldest metropolis facilities in Berlin. It follows the imaginative and prescient of the Prussian King Frederick I: deliberate on the drafting board as a contemporary metropolis in a strict geometrical grid with beneficiant paths and a central sq. of nice significance, the Gendarmenmarkt with its central buildings. Prussian straightforwardness and readability give the lodge order and timeless presence. We’re the counter-model to chaotic Berlin, the place friends can discover elevated, but understated magnificence.

The design follows tips of symmetry and unity with real, high-quality supplies. We deal with current qualities, taking away relatively than including. The structure-giving sample of the visible identification is impressed by the strict grid of Friedrichstadt. This grid is seen all around the lodge – from the cabinets within the foyer to the sample on the guestroom carpets.

What’s it about Prussian blue, do you suppose, which makes it really feel so luxurious? And the way did you successfully stability the opposite shade schemes with this blue, since it’s so daring and commanding?

Resulting from its depth, it develops its self-confident impact and the refined copper colours additional emphasize this impact. Up to now, it coloured the uniforms of the Prussian army. At the moment, we dive into the deep blue to find a world stuffed with ambiguities. The deep blue shade all the time has a particular contact and is named the colour of the royals. As blue is the principle theme shade of KPM, it was an ideal match as properly.

I really like the art work commissioned all through the lodge. Are you able to inform me a bit bit in regards to the photoshoot juxtaposing the fashions wearing 18th-century garments towards trendy backdrops all through Berlin? What was the inspiration and thought behind the shoot, and the way do you suppose it enhances and punctuates the general aesthetic of Resort Luc?

The main target was to mix historical past and modernity. The artwork is partly very spontaneous, an excerpt from life. Every picture displays three components: a reference to Berlin, an object from the Prussian previous, and one thing trendy. Because the interpretation of artwork is all the time completely different, the varied shoots give friends the prospect to interpret our lodge in their very own manner.

Lastly, what’s your favourite piece of artwork within the lodge—and why?

My absolute favourite is the Prussian soldier helmet. It’s a reminder of the self-discipline and order of the previous, and its stunning decorations make it an absolute spotlight of the foyer.