AIT Award 2012 - Global Award for the very best in Interior and Architecture

Hotel Lone, the first design hotel in Croatia, is situated in Rovinj’s most attractive tourist zone, in a unique and protected region of the Monte Mulini forest. Created by a team of renowned Croatian creatives and comprised of a new generation of architects, conceptual artists, product, fashion and graphic designers. In addition to the overall architecture, the interiors and the furniture were designed and chosen especially for the hotel in order to achieve a distinct and recognizable identity. The hotel's identity is recognized through the external design of the building, with a facade that is defined by dominant horizontal lines – terrace guards designed to evoke the image of slanted boat decks. The site's complex terrain with dramatic altitude changes determined the locations of internal facility spaces through a dynamic interweaving of public areas and guest suites at all levels. The specific Y shaped ground plan enabled a rational and functional organizational scheme; quality views from all rooms and the grouping of public facilities around a vertical lobby that connects common spaces on all levels, creating a central volume of impressive height and scale where all vital functions of the hotel take place. Surrounding ambiance is the hotel’s signature visual element which also defined all views of the interior. The ambient light and Mediterranean greenery reflects on the glossy surfaces of ceilings in public areas and on the mirrored panels on the walls in the rooms, pulling them deeply into the interior and intensifying the effect of the surrounding plants. The conceptual assumptions used in the design of the hotel and its interior show evidence of a deep respect towards the achievements of hotel architecture on the Adriatic Coast from the previous century, combining it with a strong modernity expressed primarily in materials, functions and typologies and consequently in architectural forms.