Moxy Hamburg City
Located directly at the Berliner Tor transportation hub and not far from the main train station and city centre, the Moxy Hamburg opened its doors this September with strong, colourful interiors, designed by JOI-Design, to stand out from other local hotels.
The design team’s goal was to awaken guests’ desire for discovery and put them in the right mood for their Hamburg stay as soon as they enter the lobby.
Untreated concrete walls and floors, along with an exposed ceiling, characterise the casual ‘industrial chic’ typical to Moxy, with special twists created by JOI-Design especially for this location.
Yellow lines painted on the ground like a ‘zoomed in’ city map lead guests through the open-plan space and simultaneously guide them through the Hanseatic city’s individual districts and its special sights.
The tour starts around the corner from the hotel in the St. Georg quarter and then directs visitors to the Elbe’s river banks where timber swings and cheerful coastal details create the impression of chilling out at the beach.
The Neustadt and St. Pauli neighbourhoods usher guests towards the bar, which doubles as the reception desk.
Styled to look like an oversized shipping container with rust-coloured cladding, translucent cubic units suspended from the ceiling hold glassware and indirect lighting that makes the bar glow.
The absolute eye-catcher in the communal lounge: ‘flying carpets’ designed and installed by JOI-Design.
They recall the hustle and bustle of the Speicherstadt district – the traditional hub of the European carpet trade – and give this space a magical cosiness.
Quieter corners for co-working and building community are tucked into the back of the public areas.
Via the Eimsbüttel and Rotherbaum boroughs, guests wander from the busy Elbe to the calming Alster lake area and end up in the Winterhude quarter, where they can slow down a little to check emails in secluded seating niches or sip a cool drink in the inner courtyard.
Throughout the hotel, many small yet powerful design details subtly convey the brand’s persona whilst sparking smiles.
The 291 guest rooms follow Moxy’s European design standards, a concept JOI-Design developed for Marriott in 2018 that has since become the foundation for all subsequent Moxy hotels in Europe.
The interiors were created with a natural, soothing style as a calming antidote to the lively hustle and bustle of the city.
Yet with their exposed concrete surfaces and a multifunctional ‘peg wall’ for affixing important papers, they also remain true to the ‘industrial chic’ of the public areas.
The clearly structured design language combines leather and wood in a range of warm brown hues with and black and grey details.
JOI-Design introduced this young-spirited industrial urban brand to its own backyard, whilst the project is also developer SV Hotels’ first foray into the North German market.
Globally the Moxy brand has 71 existing properties with 129 pipeline properties.
The brand is well suited for urban/metro areas with a favourable cost-to-build model, featuring efficient rooms and a lean staffing model.
Imagery: Christian Kretschmar for JOI-Design