Luxe Interiors At The Madrid Edition Hotel

Bold colours, beautifully curved lines and luxe furnishings define the Madrid Edition Hotel. This eye-catching hotel opens in the Spanish capital with a design by Ian Schrager’s long-term collaborators John Pawson and François Champsaur.

In the centre of the city

The Edition Hotel Madrid is located in close proximity to the Plaza Mayor and many of the city’s amazing attractions. A four-storey bank built in the 1980s in the city’s Sol quarter has carefully been reimagined into a 200-room hotel that boasts not just an impeccable location. The modern exterior is but a glimpse of what the hotel looks like on the inside. It’s a modern, luxe interior that mixes old and new.

Old meets new

Ian Schrager was particularly keen to link the aesthetics and emotional experience of the design to the hotel’s specific location and physicality. The latter is anchored unusually by a looming baroque portal. This feature was subseuently designed by the 18th-century Spanish architect, Pedro de Ribera. And as the discussions with the design team developed, Pawson says the idea emerged ‘to combine the energy and optimism of La Movida – the countercultural movement that sprang up in Madrid in the mid-1970s, after Franco’s death – with the sensory richness of a Velázquez painting’.

A mix of textures and curves subsequently presents itself in this space. Think white Bianco Neve matt marble and white oak floors. These feature alongside soft linen and leather – overlaid with unexpected flourishes. This subsequently includes a sprawling garden terrace perfect for a postprandial cava. Furthermore, the headboards in the bedrooms are a subtle deconstructed take on de Ribera’s elaborate portal.

A defining moment

The hotel’s defining moment subsequently occurs early with a head-turning spiral staircase at the entrance. The ribboned form has no visible handrails. For Pawson, it was the project’s most challenging aspect.

‘We talked to a lot of fabricators and engineers,’ he says. However, he also regards it as one of his biggest triumphs. ‘I love the tactile quality of its polished surfaces and the contrast with the deep tones of the baroque timber that encases it. The graphic dialogue between light and dark makes entry from Plaza de Celenque a very special experience – one that resonates through the wider design of the hotel.’