design et al are delighted to announce that Powerstrip Studio have been shortlisted for Hotel Under 200 Rooms Award in The International Hotel and Property Awards 2017.
With 144 keys, an iconic urban private residence-turned-hotel is scraped, designed and reconstructed to become playful luxurious Hotel Zoo Berlin. Hotel Zoo Berlin is very special to principal designers, Dayna Lee and Ted Berner, of Powerstrip Studio who approached the conceptual design by listening to the stories that the building wanted to tell. It is rare that this private residence, turned hotel with 144 guestrooms, still stands; along Kurfurstendamm the buildings crumbled during the war. Whilst the historical façade is preserved with original elegant ornate details and deep baroque relief, the designers documented and scraped decades of interior mundane renovations to reveal its strong authentic original brick materials and flow of space.
Hotel Zoo design is inspired by Dayna and Ted’s imaginative narrative of the family – globetrotting Berliners, who lived there and continue to share with us their bold bohemian spirit mixed within the polish of their stately family townhouse near the Zoo. Playful estate proportions emphasise a love of theatre, harkening to the property’s past as host to the Berliner Film Festival. Drafting an exploratory property featuring natural light in its core with a glass and iron wintergarten, the designers carved in a see-through fireplace for guests to delight in spring blooms and winter snow with cocktails. Grace, the restaurant, is built and designed as an aviary to the urban estate. Crystal chandelier birdcages suspend over grass green dining chairs. A sophisticated mandarin feel exudes with the amethyst stone bar.
Dayna and Ted, also filmmakers, storyboarded the pastel guestrooms – with cutting edge bathrooms and ‘Rear Window’ photography commissioned to Andreas Kock- public areas with surprises – giraffes on roof – and a glamorous collection of furnishings and art – by painters of ‘Hotel Budapest’ fame, in pursuit of a new unique Berliner style. Hotel Zoo Berlin project is a perfect trifecta of history; yet designers Dayna Lee and Ted Berner, steered away from a history lecture. It has history as a residence that is unusually large with 144 guestrooms; history of a family for which the designers told a story through furnishings, art and style; history of its former war torn place in Berlin and is viewed from a richly styled rooftop lounge through midcentury signage. The design is modern with deep old stone foundations. Great care and time was applied to sketching varieties of layouts planning the guests paths from discovery at the sidewalk to their entry and wandering. The designers’ goals was to make paths to luxurious and playful surprises for guests – and generously. As both designers and filmmakers, Dayna Lee and Ted Berner, have the eyes of the viewers and bathe them with light, story and environmental experiences through design choices.