Hotel in the park

Exterior view of The Fontenay, the seminar hotel in Hamburg

Located in the heart of Hamburg, right on the shore of Alster Lake, The Fontenay is a real city resort. Only few other destinations in Germany offer such an ideal location for a visionary hotel project like this one. In his designs for the hotel, Hamburg-born architect Jan Störmer was inspired by the park landscape and the waterline of lake Alster. The organic shape of the building consists of three intertwining circles, designed to make you think of large treetops, blending seamlessly with their surroundings, creating a balance between nature and the urban sphere. The three circles intertwine and narrow in the centre where the elevators and the glassed-in courtyard, featuring trees, as well as the 27 metre high enclosed atrium, can be found.

Hotel in the Park’, this is how architect Jan Störmer entitled his vision when he began his first drawings. Due to the amorphous shape with its sculpted roofscape means the hotel has no backside; it’s surrounded by trees and flooded with light - 14,000 m² of glass blurs the lines between indoors and out, achieving the perfect balance between nature and urban living.

The circular theme continues throughout the building; the shape of the facade is either concave or convex, no wall is parallel to the other, only the guest rooms are separated by straight walls. The hotel was conceived with all rooms facing outwards.