Designed and completed in just six months, March to September 2020, the restyling of the Conference Center, Grand Hotel Dino presented a real technical, technological and design challenge. The hotel is part of the prestigious Zacchera Hotels Group which has five luxury hotels between Stresa and Baveno. The project involved a floor area in the region of two thousand square meters. The approximately one thousand, six hundred square meter Conference Room itself can be combined or divided into an infinite number of configurations using movable partitions while the remaining roughly four hundred square meters is used for distribution, support infrastructure (reception, bar, foyer), and technical and auxiliary services areas. From this perspective, the distribution areas were drastically altered including consequent complete renewal of part of the structures and curtain walls, together with all technological installations. Underpinned by the inherent constraints of Interior Architecture and image design, the previous traditional and pseudo-classical ambiance was completely overturned. A decidedly “anti-classical” design was created, configured as a dynamically changing structure due to the stringent criteria, “break down of the four-dimensional”, elimination of symmetry, free flowing lines and encroaching spaces.
The contemporary, industrial style was informed by the principles of versatility, adaptability, flexibility and light, leading to a “quantum” leap in Architecture. Against this backdrop, the 60 x 120cm format Cosmic Marble Pluton porcelain tiles from the Cosmic Marble collection by Iris Ceramica in collaboration with Diesel Living on the floors of the Conference Rooms were fundamental to realizing the architect’s ideas. Their durability, ease of installation and maintenance and superb appearance made them the perfect choice for the high traffic, demanding aesthetic requirements of this complex. The tiles’ characteristic color variations, which feature a gray-anthracite background with fluid liquid shading and golden, light ocher clouding with a dusting of metallic particles, such as mica, effectively create a “cosmic” effect. Like a glimpse of a distant galaxy, they embody the concept of the “infinity” of space, no longer constrained by the static boundaries of a conventional “box” but rather steadily propelled towards evolution and the future. Available in numerous pattern variations, the design’s color shading in particular enables the appearance of the floor to be changed continually during installation. By orienting and carefully combining various tiles, the free-flowing pattern does not create the monotonous uniformity of a specified product.
This dynamically changing effect is designed to create an unconventional space in the sense of an uninterrupted flow of energy. Movable partitions in other cohesive materials capture the metallic and pearl reflections, and are complemented by the colors of the details selected, reflections in the gold ceilings - inspired by those in Japanese Zen temples - and vibrant, bold and tactile hues of the furnishings.
