A conversation with Werner Aisslinger

As a product designer, Werner Aisslinger is really an outsider in the hospitality industry, and yet he has had occasion to celebrate successful projects in the world of hotels: first in 2009 with the Michelberger Hotel in Berlin and most importantly, the 25hours Bikini Berlin four years later. Two new hotels he designed have just opened: another 25hours hotel – this time in Zurich – and the Hobo in Stockholm. FSB spoke with Aisslinger in his Berlin studio about the coolest corner of Zurich, Nordic nostalgia and how to pick your battles.

The new hotel in Zurich’s Langstrasse is the second hotel after Bikini Berlin that you worked on in collaboration with 25hours. How did that come about?

Zurich was actually the first project, it just ran long. Then at the start of 2011 25hours suddenly had the Bikini project. For us it was like a quick job in our own city.

So were the planning processes different between the two projects? When one project goes quickly and the other takes longer...

Longer does not necessarily mean better. You have to be careful not to lose momentum and inspiration. Ultimately we want to bring the concept with us through to opening night. It shouldn’t look like the design was thought up five years ago. As such, there have been many changes over the last six years. For example, we completely overhauled the storytelling after three years.

Why did 25hours have a separate interior design concept developed for each hotel?

25hours wants to set itself apart from standard hotel chains this way. Fundamentally it is a chain; the organisation behind it all is the same for every hotel. But the hotels themselves are individual because they collaborate with different designers and architects.

What is the concept of the new hotel?

The storytelling theme, which is what everything turns on, is ‘Pocket Universe’. It’s based on the hotel’s surroundings, District 4 in Zurich. It’s a bit like Kreuzberg in Berlin, lots of night life. District 4 is currently the coolest corner of Zurich in what is otherwise a quite buttoned-up city. It’s a mini-version of the world, with lots of international restaurants and bars. We tried to reflect that in the hotel, the push-and-pull between the Zurich cosmos and the expansive world.

How does that play out in the interior design?

The floors have different themes. The first two floors are called ‘Red Light’, the next ‘Bel Etage’ and the last two ‘Penthouse’. The colours of the walls are different: every room has a large poster with an image by Swiss photographer Nadja Stäubli. What’s important in our hotel projects is that we work with local creatives and artists. We do not want to export tinned German culture to Zurich or Stockholm. It’s about finding objects and materials locally and seeking out people who belong to the subculture.

In a recent interview you said that you were a DJ and you sample material from different sources. You don't create a ‘total look’ from a single cast.

My motto is well known: life is a collage, the world is a collage. These days no one lives in homogeneous designer apartments; it’s often a mix of vintage, flea market, classic pieces, inheritance... everyone is a DJ of their own interior design. I find it more authentic to set up hotels like this too. They should look like they came out of a life, an organic mishmash. That's our expertise, being able to design an ambiance as a whole.

How did you end up working in Sweden?

The owner reached out to us, most likely because of the Bikini Berlin project, which is a very good reference in our portfolio. We’re even designing two hotels in Taiwan at the moment off of that reference. Our client in Stockholm is the Nordic Choice Group, a large chain with 180 hotels. They wanted to try something different alongside the usual mass-market approach.

How important is the location in the city centre, in a listed building from 1974?

Stockholm natives told me that the square in front of the hotel used to the centre of the city. In a burst of euphoria for the future after the Second World War, Sweden tore down the historic buildings around the square and put up typical sixties and seventies structures. The area is not especially nice; the hotel is located directly at the largest shopping mall in Stockholm. Now the whole place is being revitalised, and life should return.

Door handles have the smallest and yet the most human impact in the building. How do you see the relationship between the architecture and the products, the door handle or lighting fixture or sink tap?

You certainly have to build hierarchies when selecting products. A product that comes into more frequent contact with a building’s users, like a door handle, should have a different reductive approach than something like a foyer light or a light over a conference table.

This should draw more attention. If a door handle is too eye-catching and too ‘pretty’, but you see it hundreds of time throughout the building, it becomes overplayed. The more discreet, the better. We generally make decisions about products based on such hierarchies. A comparable example is an office lighting fixture that repeats many, many times throughout a building. Here, too, it’s about function and looking good without being too ‘loud’. Another thing we look at is quality. How long does a door handle that is used heavily every single day last?

Will it still work months later, years later, like it did on day one? And will it still look good after long periods of use? This is where FSB takes the absolute lead for us thanks to its technology and experience.

What makes the ‘Hobo’?

There was no working title like in Zurich. But our aim was to give the building an international sporadic, spontaneous vibe. It should not feel static and fixed. We imported a bit of Berlin chaos. Scandinavia is strict and elegant, but even thriving places like Stockholm or Copenhagen are turning a bit towards Berlin.

What does that look like, specifically?

Open and unconventional. There’s an indoor farm right next to the entrance on the ground floor. But less for aesthetic reasons; they grow herbs there for the restaurant and bar. We also planned a pop-up room, which hosts a new concept every six weeks. A barber shop set up there for the opening.

The FSB 1226 handle collection you designed was used both in Zurich and in Stockholm.

It’s often not very easy to place high-quality products. We had to fight for that in both projects. Usually the budget is already predefined for things like handles, taps and power sockets. What is your personal favourite hotel? The Krafft in Basel! The tiles creak there like in a classic old building, and it has a beautiful historic lift. The interior is very pure and clean, perfectly Swiss yet elegant. It’s an authentic hotel that feels like it has always been there. You sense that the people running it have a flair for quality and style.

Learn more about the 25hours Hotel Zurich Langstrasse in a closer look at the project in FSB’s reference portfolio.