A Home to Your Spirit

The prestigious Conservatorium Hotel is located in the cultural heart of Amsterdam‘s Museum Square district. This neoGothic building, built in 1897, was originally built by the Dutch Savings Bank. Its appearance not only meant a representative work of European 19th century Art Nouveau movement, but also led to the rise of the surrounding cultural and art districts, including the Rijksmuseum, the Amsterdam Concert Hall, and the Van Gogh Museum, which was completed in 1973 by Kisho Kurokawa. In a few years after that, the old bank closed its doors and the Amsterdam Public Conservatory moved in. The thick bank office walls became the best soundproof for the music classroom. Music still flung across the interior of the tall neoclassical corridor, a delight that the pedestrians on the Van Baerle straat have enjoyed for thirty years.

The Conservatory moved to the suburbs at the beginning of the 21st century, leaving this beautiful building to wait in the loneliness for many years until 2008 when The Set group finally acquired it. At that time, the Van Gogh Museum, which was adjacent to the building just hundred steps away, had already gained a worldwide reputation after its expansion in 1999.

Who is Capable of this Design

At this time, people are concerned that this cultural and artistic hinterland in Amsterdam needs to light up the lights of modern art again. Amsterdam hotels also need to introduce the most authoritative and representative modern design style.As a result, the hot Italian designer Piero Lissoni was chosen without any suspense.

As the Van Gogh Museum has expanded its entrance into the worldfamous glass hall to meet the needs of the big visitors traffic, similarly, the transformation from a Conservatory to a hotel also needs a new entrance and a new lobby to ease the traffic and space. Lissoni‘s renowned black steel structure

language is fully expressed here. The tenmeterhigh steel glass hall built in the backyard has become the hotel lobby. The guests and vehicles all enter from the side door facing the Rijksmuseum to the back garden of the hotel, then to the hotel front gate directly. In this way, the front door by the street becomes the back door.

The threeyear renovation cycle was not long for a 129room European fivestar hotel. In December 2011, Conservatorium Hotel officially opened, and we finally saw how Piero Lissoni used his own unique design language to inject new vitality into this centuryold building.

There are many hotels in the old city of Amsterdam, most of which are grown in a centuryold building. Apart from several famous big hotels, most of them are small in size and basically follow the traditional European style and can only be more modern in a limited space, such as the hotel‘s small front lobby, restaurant, or bar. The ”luxury”, which is synonymous with long history and classic traditions in European hotels, has nothing to do with modern design. while today‘s Conservatorium Hotel is the first largescale hotel in Amsterdam and currently the only one completely designed in a modern design.

Milan Design Aesthetics

For Lissoni, the high space in the old bank building is a great opportunity for him to employ the ”Milan design aesthetics”. The black space frame and the light gray glass, curved staircase with black steel and black glass, largearea matte dark grey oak flooring, linen and navy blue fabric sofas, simple and modern wooden furniture, humorous and modern iron light fixtures, and a combination of furnishings and contemporary art...all of them, quietly talking to history in the dark, tall arcades and rooms of this 19thcentury old building, with old red brick walls and old fireplaces that have long been blackened. Modern design has truly blossomed in European historic buildings, and Conservatorium Hotel Amsterdam is another successful model.

Lissoni has preserved many traces of old buildings and old banks for Conservatorium Hotel, such as all the curved columns in the building that perfectly characterize the 19thcentury Art Nouveau movement, the wrought iron railings on the steps,and even the piggy bank pattern on the wall relief. At the same time, he did not forget to express the hotel‘s musical theme. The striking contemporary art installations with dozens of violins hanging in the hotel‘s front door became the center of the guests‘ inevitable photo spot. Less is more.

”The Brasserie” and ”Big Room”

The hotel‘s public spaces are designed with a lot of highlights, especially in the hotel lobby on the first floor and the lobby lounge called ”The Brasserie”. In this spacious and visually rich 20meterhigh space, on the one side, there is a huge floortoceiling glass window, the other side is the complex and rich original facade of the centuryold building that is included in the interior, and the middle is a seemingly lazy but compact and orderly ”Brasserie” layout with stylish furniture and lighting arranged in groups that do not interfere with each other. Once people enter and sit down, they won‘t see eye to eye. This ”open privacy” and relaxed environment have successfully made the ”Brasserie” fully booked everyday.

The Asian restaurant ”The restaurant Taiko” is also on the first floor. ”Taiko” is the Japanese for ”drum”. The restaurant is located in the percussion classroom of the original music school and truly deserved its name. The deepest impressions are the free and private dark tone and weak light that Lissoni designed for these restaurants and bars.

Conservatorium Hotel‘s rooms are available in 4 room types and 9 suites types ranging from 30 square meters to 72 square meters, including simple rooms and apartmentlike suites, and 3 iconic theme suites from 90 square meters to 170 square meters. Most of the rooms have windows facing the street and the windows are extremely sealed. Many of the rooms are the earliest bank offices, and later the music school‘s piano room. The interior design is simple and comfortable. The oak floor is gentle and lowkey, but smooth enough to walk on barefoot. The partiallyplaced soft light brown blended linen is lying underneath the oldschool leather sofa and chair; the lamps are all new industrial design products of the 21st century, which show their value proudly; the large mirror LCD black flat panel TV and the deep soaking bathtub in the large shower room are all the superb configurations of the room...

Before going to sleep at night, in the duplex suite of Concerto suite at the corner of the intersection, it seems that you can still hear the footsteps, vocals and piano sounds in this tall space decades ago; looking out through the window, one tram under the streetlight is busy running on the street amidst the rain.

The hotel is sometimes home to your spirit too.