Kameha - Grand Bonn

Marcel Wanders has created a business hotel unlike any hotel you’ve ever seen before at the Kameha Grand, which overlooks the River Rhine in Bonn, the former Federal capital of the German Republic.
Following previous hospitality work at The Hotel on Rivington in New York, the Lute Suites across Amsterdam, and Morgans Hotel Group’s Mondrian Miami, here Wanders has been able to indulge his fantastical imagination on a grand scale. All 253 guestrooms, of which 63 are suites, have the luxury of 3.1m high ceilings. The hotel boasts nine meeting and event spaces, and ten food and beverage outlets. It is a “gastronomic machine,” according to Carsten Rath, CEO of the Lifestyle Hospitality & Entertainment Group, based in Switzerland, who have the lease on the hotel. At the time of our visit last November several functions were taking place simultaneously. Not a bad start for the first week of operation. The Kameha Grand is a business hotel without question, and with difference.

The “wow” factor is everywhere. Wanders has dropped vase-like pillars into the entrance lobby that stretch up 10+ metres. The adjacent atrium space has four enormous gold-coloured flowerpots complete with trees. Colours reference the blacks, reds and golds of the German flag. Wanders’ trademark ornate patterning is on every available surface, to the point of exhausting the eyeballs. Walls, carpets, upholstery, room numbers, the soap dispenser, the embossed bed headboard...even the floor of the rooftop infinity-edge pool, looking to the Rhine, all are inscribed, embossed or adorned with a variety of intricately detailed motifs.

The Fair Play Suite, one of several themed offerings, has the hotel’s flower motive overlaid on a green tartan, inset with football pitch-like markings. And where there are no patterns, surfaces are faceted. The lounge has high-gloss, red box-like shapes panelling one wall, and faceted cut-glass doors in another. The circular Stage Bar in the lobby is fronted by bevel-edged triangular mirror panels.

The floor of the 18m high glazed ceiling of the hotel’s largest public space, the Kameha Dome, has a super-sized pixellation of the bloom-like pattern used throughout the hotel. Just as some of Wanders’ ceramic designs have taken their cue from the Dutch tradition of Delft pottery, here, the signature pattern was inspired by that on a collection of Meissen porcelain plates, the so-called Rhine-Trilogy, referencing the hotel’s riverfront location.

The hotel is just part of a large urban redevelopment alongside the Rhine at Bonn; an attempt by the city to regain some of the ground lost when the government moved to Berlin. Developer, Dr. Jörg Haas, working with local architectural practice, Architecture Firm Schommer, has transformed a former cement works into a business and technology park that will include a residential component. Principal architect Karl-Heinz Schommer won the competition to masterplan the site including the hotel. “The most noticeable architectural feature of the hotel is its transparency,” he explains. The view from the entrance looks through the lobby, the atrium and Kameha Dome space right to the riverbank. Guestrooms are arranged on only three sides of the atrium, the fourth being glazed with views to the river. Promoted as ship-like due presumably to the proximity of the Rhine, the openness and elliptical section of the structure are more similar to that of a modern airport.

Questioned as to whether the conservative city of Bonn is ready for a hotel whose audacious interiors would be more in keeping with Dubai or Miami South Beach, Rath is quick to defend the decision. “Bonn is the city with the greatest potential in Germany,” he believes. “It is the second wealthiest city in the country, with the most consultants per capita.” Certainly there are still a good number of DAX quoted companies located in Bonn (Deutsche Post / DHL, Deutsche Telekom for example). Several federal ministries and UN institutions remain in the city.

It is testimony to the deliverability of Wanders’ studio that the renderings that so captivated Rath and Dr. Haas have been realised with an amazing exactness in the finished product. However the dynamic design does not always translate into an immediately liveable space. The colour contrasts, patterning and scale certainly look dramatic. But for the conservative business types who will form the bulk of the clientele, such a cacophony could be overwhelming. Behind the scenes, there is more to the hotel than Wanders’ designs. The basement is home to one of Europe’s largest geothermal plants that uses a series of six interconnected underground water storage cells to regulate the buildings’ temperature across seasons. The heat of summer is stored for winter and the cold of winter provides summer cooling to make the hotel largely emission-free. Jörg also highlights the LED lighting system of the Kameha Dome, which used over 10% less energy than the normal halogen setup and offers literally thousands of different colour combinations. Elsewhere Flos have supplied various lighting fixtures throughout including a special version of Tubular Bells, designed by Piero Lissoni; Sebastian Wrong’s Spun Light F; Barber & Osgerby’s Tab F; and Taccia, designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni.

Jörg, who comes from an IT background, also insisted on futureproofing the hotel with an extensive, state-of-the-art communications infrastructure. In addition to the hotel’s association with Leading Hotels of the World, it is also part of the organisation’s “Leading Green” initiative. Clever design details are seen in the guestrooms where a frosted glass bathroom door pivots on the corner between the bathroom and WC to be the door for both. The angular Corian washbasin, by Antonio Lupi, is part of a columnar glass structure in the middle of the guestroom that keeps the room very open; behind the basin mirror is shelving displaying an impressive minibar selection.

The Kameha Grand is the first hotel project for Lifestyle Hospitality & Entertainment Group, whose portfolio also includes the successful King Kamehameha nightclub in Frankfurt. The boldness of the interiors create a “big bang” first impression which clearly needs to be leveraged if the hotel is to attract the MICE business it targets and deserves.

Kameha Grand
Am Bonner Bogen 1
53227 Bonn Germany
Tel: +49 228 4334 5000
www.kamehagrand.com

Rooms 253 guestrooms inc. 63 suites
Dining Brasserie Next Level, Yu Sushi Club
Drinking Kameha Dome, Puregold Bar, Stage Bar, Rothschild Lounge, Zino Platinum Cigar Lounge
Leisure Kameha Spa & Fitness Power House
Facilities Nine meeting and event spaces