The design of the Barcelo Anfa Casablanca focuses on creating a unique experience associated with a singular place, weaving a close link with the rich Art Deco history of the city, while retaining the character of the building that it will occupy.
Project Name: Hotel Barcelo Anfa Casablanca
Studio Name: Patrick Genard y Asociados Slp
Rediscovering an emblematic building
The new Barceló Anfa in Casablanca brings the emblematic building of the old Hotel Rivoli to life and takes advantage of the modernist style of its interesting facade composed of a superposition of interlocking cubes, and generous high-ceilinged public spaces, like the grandiose ballroom. A spectacular facade is created by reworking the faces of the cubes, providing generous glazed openings and terraces overlooking a superb view of the bustling city. The existing blind base of the hotel has been totally transformed, wide open, with a triple height glass curtain wall that creates a giant screen / storefront connecting hotel life to the Anfa Boulevard.
A varied interior course, following a geometric common thread
The classic Art Deco pattern, inspired by the oblique structural frame of the building, is revisited, and becomes the pattern that serves as a common thread for the interior design of the hotel. For example, the layout in three shades of gray marble which conforms to a “tartan” frame extending over the entire surface of the ground floor, establishes a neutral and elegant background, perfect for receiving the furniture in gray-green, dark gray, and rust carefully studied and balanced according to the different spaces. Likewise, the very present existing structural columns, mirrored on their narrow sides, are transformed into elegant strips of marble floating in space. The acoustic ceiling takes up the geometry of the oblique grid like a common thread that accompanies the visitor in all spaces. The materials play on the nobility of marble and brass and the warmth of wood and leather. Lightened velvets, wood coverings in warm tones, golden and modern accents, over-scaled plants and mirrors dress and transform the space. The soft lighting is directly inspired by Moroccan know-how in the perforated metal lanterns.
The rooms, an amplified space
The primary objective of the decoration is to use all possible remedies to visually enlarge the limited space of the bedroom. The bathroom opens up to the maximum, the bedroom’s parquet floor suitable for wet areas extends to the shower, the made-to-measure furniture (dressing room, mini-bar, suitcase holder, etc.) is raised on golden metallic legs to visually extend the space. The lowered ceiling area is kept to a minimum, and most importantly the wall in front of the bed is mirrored from floor to ceiling to give the illusion that the space is double the size.
The leitmotif of the triangle is represented in the graphic patterning of the gray and white stone in the shower, in the delicate joints of the walnut wood panels, or in the topstitched velvet headboard. The hanging lamps bring the poetry of the flickering of traditional lanterns but here again redesigned in a contemporary way.
In conclusion, the Hotel Barceló Anfa Casablanca, sensitive to the identity of place and to the historical and cultural richness of Casablanca, offers a variety of different experiences which celebrate, each in their own way, the richness of the Moroccan palette of atmospheres, styles, materials and crafts all revisited in a contemporary way.
