Both concepts were combined in 2018 at the Hotel Schani Salon: themed rooms - designed and implemented by Archisphere - invite guests to experience Art Nouveau history in an authentic setting. From Sigmund Freud and Otto Wagner to Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt with his muse Emilie Flöge. From the entrée with coffee house character to the golden rain shower in Art Nouveau style.
The house comprises 24 rooms: compact, high-quality rooms decorated with natural materials and open bathrooms that stand out from the clean, empty rooms of classic hotels. Patterned fabrics and thoroughly Viennese elements refer to the great names of classical modernism. A Thonet chair, for example, was attached to the wall as a mute servant.
The flair and charm of the turn of the century also shine through elsewhere in the historic old building. Artist Oskar Kubinecz, for example, reinterpreted works from this era to use them as décor for the hotel rooms.
Moreover, the reinforced concrete building of the first hour was erected in 1906 by the Wittgenstein family, who stood for avant-garde thinking throughout their lives. Inspired by this and by the local colour, the Botique Hotel at Mariahilfer Straße 58 now extends the idea into the present, in keeping with the Schani brand: while in the Hotel Schani Wien at the main railway station the original Viennese with its "Schmäh" plays a major role, in the Hotel Schani Salon on Mariahilfer Straße it is Art Nouveau with its world-famous representatives.
The entrance area is therefore designed like a coffee house and sees itself more as a salon than a lobby: a meeting place for hotel guests as well as for authors, painters and philosophers - very much in the spirit of the Viennese salon of the Gründerzeit.
Photos © Hotel Schani Salon_Gregor Hofbauer