Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam, Netherlands

For travellers, airport hotels have long been about as inspiring as airline food. However, with the opening of the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, both the airport and the hotel group have set out to up the ante.

Iconic was the brief, and with its reptile-like white and grey panelled façade, diamond shaped windows and irregular orientation, Dutch architects Mecanoo have succeeded in creating a structure that’s instantly recognisable to all passing by. Inside, a soaring 42 meter internal atrium forms the centrepiece of the twelve level, 433 room property, leading upwards to clear sky views by day, which slowly fade to an almost nightclub-esque illumination at night. 

London-based interior design studio The Gallery HBA have given the site a ‘Dutch touch’ at every turn, with patterns and imagery inspired by local lace, Delftware and cartography applied to tiles, carpets, wall panels and the vivid, Escher-inspired handlaid timber flooring of the hotel’s Diamond Suite.

Working with lighting company Frandsen Project, lead designer Constantina Tsoutsikou customised an array of the hotel’s  fixtures, including desk lamps, copper pendants, a rope-chandelier installation and corridor and in-room wallsconces, the latter of which is being brought to market next year. Indeed, the airport hotel ante has been upped.