Love, Peace + Design fuse in Vienna for a new artsy hotel suite inspired by Lennon, Corbusier and the United Nations.

As far as your typical hotel suites go, the largest usually gets crowned as the ‘Presidential Suite’ – representing the insanely large scale of the bedrooms and adjoining rooms decorated with a generous, if not pointless, sofa count, unread books and an oversized plasma, and oh not forgetting the mandatory white orchid. Give this space over to the creative brainchild behind Vienna’s iconic Altstadt Hotel over in boho 7^thdistrict, and you get an altogether different vibe – a new ‘United Nations’ 110m2 suite of love, peace and design.

Creativity at Otto Wiesenthal’s iconic Altstadt Hotel is never in short supply neither is their spiritual embrace of cultural diversity, tolerance and the support of art and design – add to this a distain with current populist politics (Donald Trump, Erdogan, Putin, Orban and Brexit) and your smorgasbord of ideas freewheels a design narrative of “Another World”. 

“We thought about the messages of John Lennon, the relevance of design from the likes of Le Corbusier, (mastermind behind the UN headquarter in New York City) and Roland Rainer, being the jury chairman of the architectural committee for the UNO City in Vienna, which celebrates its 40 years since inauguration. And we got help from the architect who loves the old: Roland Nemetz, from Plan B Architects.”

Mid-Century Modern was chosen as the aesthetic anchor from which the interior blue print draws upon and as the perfect chapter in which to make the design connections.  The United Nations Suite is decked in mid-century furnishings influenced by Bauhaus and primary colours of sorbet orange, fresh-cut-grass vert with timbers from oak to teak rooting that 1950's era. Conversation-worth art and literature including the iconic Non-Violence piece: 'The knotted Gun' created in memory of the John Lennon - a large-scale installation stands outside of the UN building in New York. 

Furnishings include 'Make Carpets, not War', an initiative of the United Nations peace mission in Afganistan, the iconic Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen, 1958, to the LC3 sofa designed by Le Corbusier.

In the home of the United Nations in Vienna, this new hotel suite symbolizes a more optimistic outlook based on love, peace and design, a new modern era and a hotel suite that is geared not only for presidents. A stay here will not change the world, but it will inspire you, as in the words of Imagine by John Lennon ‘to see the world as one.’ 

Editor’s Journal Edit

Read up on other Hotel Altstadt Vienna design dens in our Travel Journal, such as room 67 created by Vienna Design Week Director Lilli Hollein, room 66 by Gregor Eichinger, the Lackner Suite by creative guru Andreas Lackner and Svenkst Tenn’s Josef Frank Suite. Tour the city in style with our Vienna Design Guide, peruse a coffee shop ode to all things beyond Sacher, check out our Foodie Guide to Vienna and hit the streets in style with our Vienna Art Guide.