The Mandarin Oriental Hotel In Barcelona

The goal was to somehow work in the lyrics to “Barcelona,” from Sondheims’ musical Company, what with this being a post about the beautiful new Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the heart of Spain’s capital city. But most likely better to just hum it while I gush over Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola’s interior design work. Located in a renovated mid-20th century building, the hotels’ interiors are big, bold and contemporary, with Urquiola playing the creative game with space concepts throughout the hotel.

If there is centerpiece to Urquiola’s interior decor it could very well be the lobby; one feature is a towering entrance atrium to seduce passers-by from the Passeig de Gràcia, a busy shopping and business avenue in Barcelona. The linear simplicity of this particular building, which was once the headquarters of a bank, lends itself perfectly to the clean, balanced interior design by Urquiola. [via contemporist]