In the right hands, industrial minimalism imparts a pleasing aesthetic of layered textures and monochromatic hues, an ideal that Jonathan Tuckey Design has realised to great effect with its latest project – the creation of 23 new rooms on the fourth floor of Berlin’s Michelberger Hotel.
What was once redundant office space has been transformed, the London-based studio fully exploiting the high ceilings, steel beams and original open plan and oversized windows of the 1903 building to flood the bedrooms with light – the rectangular clerestories, especially, deserve applause.
Quirky touches abound, not least the odd placements of mirrors that create the illusion of other rooms, alongside slanted writing desks, slender benches and chairs made from Panzerholz – a compressed plywood that has a pleasing weathered, almost velvety veneer and which, oddly enough, is also bullet-proof. Both the beds and bathtubs are enclosed in floor-to-ceiling cutaway cabinets, their imposing bulk inspired by a railway signal box outside the hotel. §
