25Hours Hotel Zürich West Opens Its Doors

November 30th 2012 – This month marked the opening to one of Zurich’s most anticipated hotel arrivals – the vibrant 25Hours Hotel. Sling away the old Swiss stereotypes, because in the former industrial neighborhood of Zurich West you’re more likely to spot independent cultural spaces and eclectic design stores than watchmakers or chocolate shops. Add jazz clubs, antique bookshops and graffiti-splattered streetscapes to the melting pot, and you have the perfect setting for the 25hours Hotel Zürich West, a property that places the local environment at the core of its design concept.

The tram from Zurich’s main train station will drop you by the hotel’s lobby, where flashes of raspberry and fuchsia furnishings light up the bar area, mirroring the area’s artistic buzz and colorful nightlife. As well as creating an energetic and joyous interior landscape, Zurich resident and award-winning interior designer Alfredo Häberli has scribbled his personal city recommendations on surfaces and objects throughout the hotel, encouraging guests to visit his favorite hotspots. Precious metals like gold, silver and platinum lend their names to the hotel’s 126 rooms. It is bronze, however, that recurs most frequently through the Living Room – an open-plan space for mingling with other like minds – the business facilities and the top-floor wellness area, which overlooks the city. Visible next door is the new campus for Zurich’s University of the Arts; an institution that attracts artists from across the globe and only amplifies the area’s creative energy as explained by Design Hotels.

Zurich resident Alfredo Häberli, the creative mind behind 25hours Hotel Zürich West. Since graduating from the Zurich School of Design, he has worked with names like Alias, Camper and Volvo to discover new ways of looking at everyday objects. His unmistakable signature style – a mixture of innovation and pure joyous energy – leaps out from every corner as soon as you step beyond the hotel’s seven-story facade.

 Witty artistic and graphical interventions be found in each room and elsewhere in the property

The lobby is the beating heart of 25hours hotel zurich, and the lobby bar + restaurant contributes a great deal to the buzz. it’s where guests and visitors meet, relax and mingle over a drink and a bite, and in the evenings the mood here appropriately shifts into clubby gear.

Like many of the late 19th century factories nearby, the building looks square-edged, functional and gritty. Inside, things become more sophisticated, with the spacious ground floor reflecting Zurich’s old-fashioned reputation for sophistication, and its cheeky-bright walls and pillars echoing the free and easy vibe of Zurich West’s best nightclubs.

Custom-designed multifunctional furniture adorns the 126 rooms and suites, while splashes of vivid raspberry and fuchsia breathe life into the roomy public areas. Then there are the sightseeing recommendations from Häberli himself, which have been written onto surfaces around the building at seemingly random intervals – surprising guests and leading them on a kind of treasure hunt around the city’s most intriguing spots.