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Life's rich

Fabio Novembre weaves a spell at the Una Hotel Vittoria in Florence, Italy

Donna Paul -- Interior Design, 1/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

"Hotels should be like geishas. They distract and enchant you with their beauty. But they're not reality."

Architect Fabio Novembre never spoke those exact words—Andrée Putman did—but he clearly shares her point of view. His Una Hotel Vittoria in Florence, Italy, proves the point, taking a 19th-century warehouse in the rapidly gentrifying San Frediano district and imbuing the interior with idiosyncratic spirit. Known for his poetic and expressive brand of design, he's confident enough to pay homage to Machiavelli and the Medicis but not be overly literal about tradition. Novembre lets the history inspire rather than restrict.

The three-story hotel's public areas—lobby, bar, and restaurant—make an audacious statement in form, function, and fancy. What Frank Gehry can achieve with titanium, Novembre accomplishes with mosaic and Corian, reworked into "super-organic" surfaces that curve, arch, and spiral. His methods defy the rules. "I'm a big fighter of gravity," he says. "The gestures here are my ' way of saying, " 'Hey, gravity, I don't care about you.' I don't like to feel compressed."

Divisions between floor, ceiling, and walls seem to dissolve in the hotel lobby, where an elegant ribbon of his signature glass mosaic tile is modern-day tapestry—one that pushes an ancient Italian material to the limits of current technology. An 18th-century Florentine brocade inspired the floral pattern, modified with the assistance of Adobe Photoshop to produce a rendering for the tile maker.

Those sections of lobby wall not clad in tile are surfaced in a delicious shade of violet Corian, which also tops the reception desk. Novembre's flair for color shows up again in the swooping spiral of the bar's AND sofas, their feltlike upholstery shifting from red to brown. To sit here is to experience privacy—with just enough freedom to play the voyeur. Or the romantic: Novembre placed Robert Indiana's iconic Love side tables at the end of each spiral as an homage to the 1970's.

The restaurant's central feature emerged from a vision of old Tuscan monasteries'' tavolo fratino, typically a long narrow table where the monks would sit together. To welcome weary travelers in that same spirit, Novembre modernized the concept as an S-curved communal table topped in strips of several different woods. "It surfs between the columns," he says.

Should a visitor prefer to dine alone or commune with cyberspace, single place settings dot the undulating tiled counter ringing the room. ("Waves of mosaic crash against the wall, frozen in their moment of maximum height," explains Novembre.) Each individual spot comes equipped with a simple beech stool and a plasma screen that functions as both computer and television, so "you've got mail" is accessed as swiftly as CNN. Behind the screens, grooves score the MDF wall, lending it a dimensionality that Novembre compares to "wind blowing across the water."

Nature gives way to art—Novembre's exuberant take on Florentine culture—in the corridors that lead to the 84 guest rooms. Doors are covered in full-length portraits, printed ' reproductions based on paintings from the Galleria degli Uffizi or other museums. And every portrait is framed in gold leaf.

Novembre conceived the 320-square-foot guest rooms as small studio apartments with three zones: for sleeping, dressing, and bathing. And it's all classic Novembre, relying on his instincts about human behavior and needs. The dual-purpose plasma screens are huge, and a sophisticated fiber-optic system controls multiple functions, including the grid of twinkling lights embedded between the wall and ceiling panels. Lights, patterns, and mirrors aside, however, the ambience remains oddly serene. The room becomes a private refuge in which to be spontaneous, creative, or languorous—to think, refresh, sleep, and dream in turns. Daydreaming is encouraged, too.

Previous spread: For the lobby at the Una Hotel Vittoria in Florence, Italy, Fabio Novembre used glass mosaic tile to adapt a floral pattern from an 18th-century Florentine brocade.

Top, from left: Neon tubes become chandeliers in a ground-level corridor. The reception desk is topped in violet Corian. Center: Novembre simply repainted the exterior courtyard of the hotel, a 19th-century warehouse. Bottom, from left: Two rear volumes of the hotel face each other. In the waiting area, a custom ottoman covered in leather accompanies Robert Indiana's glass-topped Love side table in painted wood.

Opposite: Upholstered in a feltlike cotton that shifts from red to brown, Novembre's AND sofa defines the bar.

Top, from left: This guest room's walnut-and-steel stools pull up to a wengé counter. Guest-room doors boast printed reproductions of portraits from the Galleria degli Uffizi; overhead, sculptural MDF forms conceal pipes running the length of the corridor. Center: This room features rosewood accents. Bottom, from left: Among Novembre's many visual games is a plastic-laminate closet door printed with an image of hanging clothes. In a guest bathroom, a glass sliding door separates the tub from the toilet and bidet.

Opposite: The guest rooms' pinpoint fiber-optic lights cycle through a rainbow of colors.

Left, from top: Scored MDF surfaces the walls of the hotel restaurant. Backlit stained glass follows the weaving path of the communal table. Individual diners can sit at beech stools. Right: The china bears a Florentine lily.

Left, from top: Integral neon fixtures illuminate a service stairwell. The ground-level conference room seats 200. Its lighting system changes the apparent color of the white-painted space. Right: Arne Jacobsen designed the chairs.

TILE (LOBBY, WAITING AREA, GUEST BATHROOMS, RESTAURANT): BISAZZA. CEILING, WALL FIXTURES (LOBBY, BAR, STAIRWELL, CONFERENCE ROOM): ROESELARE. SOFAS (BAR): CAPPELLINI. STOOLS (GUEST ROOMS): LA PALMA. FLOOR TILE (GUEST CORRIDOR): COTTO DESTE. CUSTOM STOOLS, CHAIRS, TABLE (RESTAURANT): LENSVELT. CHINA: RICHARD GINORI 1735 GROUP. ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR: ARTIM.