Living quarters: Hotel favours comfort

Barcelona – Designer Patricia Urquiola has created an interior for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Barcelona that focuses on quality and comfort.

Patricia Urquiola has designed the interior of the newly opened Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Barcelona. Urquiola claims that she has ‘not worked on looks, but on the sensation of mental quality and comfort’.

Urquiola was appointed to the project around a year ago, and was approached by the hotel group after meeting a senior Mandarin Oriental staff member at a trade fair in Belgium. ‘They were having problems with the interiors, so asked me to help,’ says Urquiola, who explains that she wants the public to engage with the materials in the design and feel ‘sensation and comfort’.

The hotel features an inviting communal area ‘where people can just come inside for a cup of tea’, says Urquiola, who adds that she worked on the project down to the ‘finest details’ on the night before opening.

Mandarin Oriental has also engaged Urquiola to work on the interiors of its new resort in Puerto Rico, which will open in March 2010, and a second hotel in Barcelona.