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Regent is stamping its identity on the hotel with its new meeting rooms
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Whilst the designers may have struggled with the interface between the 'old' image and their new vision, where they have had a clean slate they have created bold design statements often in unexpected areas (click to see another wall treatment)
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However, without having seen many other Regents, the style does appear to have more in common with the company's Radisson brand in its funky approach to using color in particular. Here the full blooded minimalism used by the designers sits uneasily with some of the original pieces of furniture, whilst the solid red areas of carpet laid down show the marks of the vacuum cleaner never mind the traces of conference use (it seems to require frequent deep cleaning) quite spoiling the perfection that such large-scale minimalist blocks of color need to succeed. The essence of paintings such as Lissitzky’s Red Square (which influenced the designers of the Bauhaus and other minimalist pioneers) is the purity of the color square itself and its relationship to the edges of the canvas. Tracking marks completely break this relationship destroying the tension the designer is trying to create visually, to make the interior 'edgy'.
The interface between the old FS interior and the new Rezidor interior is handled well, but whether the meeting room seating is up to the quality one would expect of Regent someone more experienced with the brand would have to tell me – but as an indicator it seems no different to that used in a Radisson and it seems to me that it should be of a more luxurious standard. Maybe employing a designer used elsewhere in the chain is not necessarily a way of guaranteeing the right result. The quality of the detailing is also not up to the high standard that is required to avoid the eye being distracted from the perfection that a clean minimalist interior needs – and a five star superior surely demands such perfection.
As the gentle shift to a Regent standard from the previous FS standard continues the interface between old and new will become increasingly difficult to control, although if it is done as well as the alterations to the dining room (new drapes, banquette seating and artworks amongst the changes)have been done, then there is no reason to worry. Handled as the introduction of the conference areas has been and the worries could mount.The difference may be subtle in the detailing of the paneling for example, but in my view the detailing is not as proficient leaving the overall quality not the same as the paneling of the public areas on the ground floor. Chairs are similar to the chairs used in Radisson conference spaces, and it is this that leaves the uneasy feeling that it is the Radisson feel that is being put in here rather than the Regent branding.
Some of the new spaces are actually better for being treated in the modern style than the pastiche areas in the dining and bar areas, particularly where technology has made advances. A contemporary approach is also capable of providing more visual delight as the stairs to the new conference zone demonstrates.
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Bedroom and bathroom set high standards in the traditional five star manner, although with perhaps more luxury in the bathroom than in most hotels
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New areas such as the toilet areas to the conference rooms are also handled with tremendous panache and confidence. It is in some of the areas where the existing style is being extended that the designer has difficulty in getting to grips with the problems, and this shows most in the handling of the joinery details.
These conflicts have yet to reach the bedrooms which still have the concepts of style and comfort that the previous owners built in. Within some of the suites, bedrooms are totally internal, dictated by the nature of the buildings site, and generous use of mirror tries to overcome the slight claustrophobia that can result.
The rooms are large, and generous workspace is provided for the desk warrior. In fact the bedrooms are claimed to be the largest in the city in the hotel brochure, but the room rates that have been achieved in Berlin in recent years have been well below those achieved in other European capitals, which may well be why the stay of Four Seasons has been so abbreviated. Rezidor however has a tradition of investment in Eastern and Central Europe often ahead of other groups, and this represents their second Regent after the opening of Zagreb, and their third, planned for 2008, will open in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
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Rezidor's Regent
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