Mamaison All-Suites Spa Hotel Pokrovka Moscow

Issue 22 January / February 2009

Jestico & Whiles have continued their affiliation with Orco Property Group, completing designs for the company’s latest all-suite Mamaison in Moscow.

The eleven-strong Mamaison group of hotels and apartments is described by owners Orco Property Group as its ‘primary investment vehicle for setting up operations in new territories’. The collection – comprising small luxury boutique hotels and serviced apartments across Central and Eastern Europe – is mainly located in capital cities. There are two apiece in Prague, Warsaw and Budapest, with further properties located in Bielsko Biala, Poland; Hvar, Croatia; Ostrava, Czech Republic and Bratislava, Slovakia. There is a variety of design styles across the hotels. The Pachtuv Palace in Prague for example is a homage to old world elegance in the classical Czech style, whilst the Hvar Grand Beach Resort in Croatia is decidedly more contemporary in look and feel. With their latest property – the Mamaison Pokrovka in Moscow – the group has tapped into a quintessentially Russian, post-modern aesthetic thanks to a Jestico+Whiles design team led by Sean Clifton.

“We knew the hotel needed to be different to other hotels in Moscow, we wanted it to be eclectic, opulent, rich and uniquely contextual”, says Clifton.

And ‘different’ it is, although it also fits within a canon of contemporary Russian design that has been popular in Moscow’s upscale restaurants and bars for several years now. Where the Pokrovka undoubtedly breaks new ground is in taking that tried and tested design style, aimed at a predominantly local market, and sliding it across into a hotel concept with a more international focus. Clifton describes how he was inspired by the “incredible mix of bright colours, unusual designs and glitter in the unique fashion outfits of Muscovites as they paraded through the city-centre shopping streets”.

JJ Doran, the group’s Area Sales Director, describes it more succinctly in terms of ‘high design’, an apt moniker for the maximalist leanings of this particularly Russian aesthetic.

The Pokrovka is very much a hotel in and of its time, yet it’s a wonder we haven’t seen anything like it before in the capital given the prolonged boom in interest around contemporary art and design here.

Intriguingly, Doran admits the city almost had to wait a while longer too as the site was originally pegged by Mamaison to be a three-star: “We’re an entrepreneurial company that looks for gaps in a market. A contemporary three-star was one such gap we identified in Moscow, but we also saw another one for a design-led property with a high proportion of suites and extended stay apartments aimed at foreign executives or diplomatic guests. We trumped for the latter.”

The hotel’s 84 suites can be schematically categorised into three groups. First come the 28 inter-connecting Junior/Junior Deluxe Suites and the 44 one-bed Deluxe Suites. Their use of sophisticated parquet flooring, frosted glass room dividers, vibrant colour tones and floor-to-ceiling windows creates an uplifting yet tranquil ambiance well suited to today’s business traveller.

Stepping up a category, the one-bed Exceptional Suites and two-bed Executive Suites at 80-90m² have fully equipped kitchenettes, 6th floor views, separate living rooms and the obligatory range of high-tech gadgetry. The look is one of a somewhat muted modernity that is unlikely to ruffle many corporate feathers.

Only once we gravitate northward to the top-floor Presidential and Chairman’s Suites do Jestico+Whiles really get their creative juices flowing. The 233m² Chairman’s Suite for example houses a Moooi Design horse-shaped lamp, intricately embroidered ceiling-height leather headboards, animal-fur bed throws and a square bath tub.
At 209m²  the Presidential Suite is marginally smaller but still packs a punch with its dramatic white, black and red colour scheme, stand-alone Jacuzzi, walk-in rainshower, four-poster beds in both bedrooms, Mark Rothko-esque wall art and abundance of indoor plants.

Sean Clifton is keen to point out the practical considerations in building this kind of a hotel in Moscow. “We had to factor in a place for bodyguards, a nanny or secretary, so all suites interconnect, with large suites discretely connecting to ‘temporary’ offices and junior suites.  A generous driveway in front of the hotel houses guest’s limousines and the Chairman’s suite has direct lift access to his private antechamber”.
Such prestigious guests are likely to have high expectations from a hotel restaurant but Mamaison have, sensibly, outsourced their F&B offering to a specialist, allowing them to focus their attentions on what they do best: running a rooms division.

The eye-catching Numbers restaurant from Doucet X.O features Moscow’s first upscale tequila bar and a 150-seater restaurant with bold swathes of patterned cobalt blue fabric, Tom Dixon-style hanging lamps and gold detailing.

A two-level spa, designed and managed by Algotherme, has 14 treatment rooms offering thalassotherapy, beauty therapies, hair salon and volcanic mud scrubs. An organically-shaped 15m spa pool in pearlescent white mosaic tiling makes for an unusual touch, suggesting Algotherme were briefed to produce something that would go at least some way to matching the stylistic bravura of the Pokrovka’s upper levels. A relaxing ‘aqua-zone’ and spa café serving diet-friendly juices completes the picture, perfect for the wafer-thin model-types the Pokrovka is already starting to attract.

WORDS: Matt Morley, Hospitality Partners

PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Mamasion

Mamaison Pokrovka Suite Hotel
Pokrovka str. 40, building 2, 105062 Moscow, Russia
Tel: +7 495 229 57 97
www.mamaison.com/pokrovka

Rooms:   84 suites
Dining:    Numbers Restaurant
Drinks:    Tezon Bar
Leisure:   Algotherm Spa-centre
Facilities: VIP Cigar Lounge & Meeting Room