The name prompts the question, would Humphrey Bogart stay here? Of all the hotels in all the world this hotel sets a style that Bogey would struggle to recognise. This hotel is definitely a product of the turn of the 20th Century, using technologies and production techniques that would not be recognisable to the generation adult in the 1940s, although there are parallels between the Utility furniture of the 1940s and the pared down minimalist design employed here

If minimalism involves paring the design down to the smallest number of components and making the most of blank space then this design successfully takes this to the extreme. A brief analysis of the design of the bedside units for example will illustrate this. In approaching the design of this element of a room, a designer might ask themselves what style of leg should be used, how many drawers should the unit have, what relationship to the bedhead will it need, what height the top should be in relation to the height of the mattress, what kind of veneer should be used, how big does it need to be to hold a phone etc..

Here most of these questions don’t come into play. The laminate is the same throughout the room – indeed it is the same through 95% of the hotel, the variation being in colour by floor, and the colour and pattern in the suites. The unit is fixed to the wall, as is the phone. It is made simply to fulfil the narrowest of functions. Put your book and glasses on here and it is full.

In relation to the anticipated guest and length of stay this minimalist approach satisfies the perceived need – no hint of facilities creep, just a clear design goal simply, directly and effectively achieved.

Only one side of the bed has the bedhead light switches and these are fixed in the back panel. The light is a simple box with a tube within it, immediately above the bedhead, and in the same laminate finish.

There is only one drawer in the room, and this is big enough to hold a sheet of A4 paper and the connection to put your laptop onto the hotels internet system. The desk itself is a simple functional piece of design in matching laminate, with a large enough surface to provide ample working space, sockets at the right height and in the right place – uncomplicated and direct.