What can we learn from the embedded history of a building? For the Hotel Majestic, one of Paris’s opulent Belle Époque buildings, it is a long story of international relations.

After a dormant period as offices for the French government, the 16^th arrondissement gem has recently been reborn as The Peninsula Paris, the latest addition to the Hong Kong brand’s global stable of ultra-luxury hotels. The joint owners, Qatar’s Katara Hospitality and The Shanghai and Hong Kong Hotels, have meticulously restored the building’s turn-of-the-century grandeur.

By inserting a 21^st century hotel into a heritage building, the design team – a collaboration between Richard Martinet of Affine, Henry Leung of Chhada Siembieda Leung and Peninsula’s in-house designers – have given this grand dame of the Belle Époque a new lease on life.

After the unexpected discovery that many of the original interior features were intact or salvageable, a team of highly skilled artisans was engaged to piece together and conserve the prized examples of early 20^th century design. Gold leaf mouldings, romantic ceiling murals, stained glass domes and wood-panelled walls burst with colour and movement, a living testament to the decadent excess of this iconic period.

Read the full article in the Hospitality issue of Indesign magazine, out on June 7, 2015.

The Peninsula
peninsula.com

Affine
affine-design.com

Chhada Siembieda
csa-hk.com