MKV reveals designs for Intourist
MKV Design has completed the interior of the Intourist Hotel in Baku, the rapidly transforming capital of Azerbaijan. The hotel, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, celebrates the legacy of Baku’s past while symbolising the international and aspirational city that it is becoming.
Boutique in quality and scale, the hotel derives from fond memories of Baku’s first Intourist, which opened in 1934. The hotel architects, ReardonSmith, have designed a building styled to look very similar to the old icon. However, this 21st Century successor has a narrative that is clearly its own; allusions to the heyday of the earlier hotel infuse the interior design, but never overwhelm it.
The ground floor spaces have been carefully planned to provide a series of opportunities for guests to relax, work, socialise and dine, all within a relatively small footprint. The spaces flow naturally from the entrance lobby, leading guests into the next area with intriguing glimpses and carefully composed views.
Reception desks, finished in silver metallic high gloss lacquer, sit in front of decorative timber screens styled by MKV to suggest a mid-20th Century design. Full height sheers couple the screens and recur through the ground floor to hold the spaces together.
Guestrooms are modern and streamlined. Hidden lighting washes the room in soft light; a feature wall with crystal embossed wallpaper adds a further touch of glamour. All suites overlook the Caspian Sea and benefit from generous wet rooms clad in Arabescato marble.
The antique brass of the bar glimmers under shafts of lighting slicing through dark walnut timber and white lacquer boxes suspended from the ceiling to cut through the marble wall and lounge. The hint of a sea-going raft is apparent in these boxes, alongside a porthole-shaped frame over the bar, which depicts an ancient ship as might once have set sail from the seafaring nation of Azerbaijan.
The hotel restaurant is a long room with several structural columns. MKV has overcome the potential hardness of the space by cladding the columns with mirror and decorating them with sheers and fretwork screens, several of which can slide together to close off part of the restaurant and create an intimate evening destination.
