Traditional, Chinese hospitality in a modern interior: The New Century Hotel in Frankfurt/Offenbach welcomes guests with the casual yet elegant atmosphere of a country with a thousand-year-old culture and history. The completely modernized 4-star hotel is the first German/European hotel project by the Chinese New Century Hotel Group, the largest privately operated hotel chain in China with multiple stars and 197 hotels and more than 50,000 rooms. To revitalize the hotel building, originally from the 70’s, fundamental structural and functional changes were made. For the room bathrooms, public bathrooms and wellness areas, selections were made from Villeroy & Boch's current bathroom and tile collections.
The Chinese New Century Hotel Group purchased the hotel in Offenbach-Kaiserlei from Golden Tulip Hotel group in 2013. The architects at ANSSP in Hamburg acted as the general contractor, coordinating the design, approvals, execution and detail planning as well as the on-site supervision.
The mechanical systems were completely redone and expanded, the facade was improved and visually upgraded, the entire building entry was newly designed inside and out, the three lower levels were remodeled and all rooms were updated.
The ANSSP team worked on the design in multiple steps keeping the existing load-bearing structure, the views and the 4-star quality in mind to optimize the entire hotel and the internal flows and, at the same time, keep as many rooms and suites as possible. Public areas, such as the lobby, gallery, conference and restaurant areas, were expanded to create a 2-story entry hall. Part of the planing was to link the existing building and the new addition. Another task was to develop the desired design look in collaboration with the Chinese interior architect.
The result is an elegant atmosphere of well-being that sets the Villeroy & Boch brand name products off to best advantage. To keep the individuality of the rooms and suites, the interior designers selected among a variety of bathroom collections . Sinks and various toilet models were used, including the Vita version handicap access models and the urinals from the professional line Architectura that set standards for hygiene, efficiency and maintenance, not only because of their puristic timeless design but also with their innovative functionality.
The comprehensive product portfolio opens up enormous flexibility for designing so that solutions for projects of any size can be found which meet a country’s regulatory norms. As design highlights, the Loop & Friends under-mounted washbasin and the sinks from the O.novo series were installed.
All of the 223 hotel room and suite bathrooms were amply and stylishly furnished while the floors and walls of the public bathrooms and wellness areas were also set with Villeroy & Boch tiles: The fine stone concept TRIBUTE in 30 x 60 cm tiles beige were used to provide an authentic natural stone look. The wall tiles are unpolished, the floor tiles offer very good footing with anti-slip R10. A specially made anti-slip R10/B was installed in the shower areas which meets all requirements for wet and bare-foot areas.
The back-up and personnel areas were also covered with Villeroy & Boch tiles: The UNIT ONE, UNIT TWO and UNIT THREE are ideal for professional applications offering modular formats of 5 x 5 cm to 30 x 30 cm as well as a variety of shaped pieces for wall and floor corners.