Toompuiestee Street is crowded with hotels, but in spite of the good logistic and central location, it is still one of the greenest and most peaceful main streets in Tallinn. The hotel offers 91 guest rooms, restaurant, conference room plus service- and other staff facilities with traditional functions.
Site and function
Hotel L’Ermitage is situated at Toompuiestee Street in the city centre of Talinn just outside the old city boundaries. This site was chosen very carefully and offers views of both the Estonian Parliament and the Pikk Herman tower, one of the symbolic buildings of Estonia and Tallinn. The site where new hotel was erected had been empty since the 2nd World War.
Differ from other hotels by their entire approach and caretaking of every possible detail and are, therefore, often unique within their own category; which means better quality and less interest in the traditional classification system. The hotel industry itself is on the other hand a conservative industry where certain established customs must be followed and expectations to quality are unified in the meeting between customer needs and an affordable business economy. Marking every hotel with a number of stars ranking from zero or one to as many as seven stars (like e.g. the famous Hotel Burj al Arab holding 7 stars and being a landmark of Dubai in the United Arabian Emirates), all hotels can be promoted in a very formalized way by a certification and classification system based on specific standards of luxury, services and comfort.
Materials and windows
The courtyard facades are surprisingly coloured with feminine, soft-reddish cement plates – a contrast to the strict, masculine street facade. Zooming in from far away, the first glimpse of the hotel might be the bright pink back facade peeking out between two old limestone firewalls of the neighbouring buildings. The facades and the part of the roof facing the streets are all covered with the same material – black copper in narrow, vertical tracks or stripes, which almost create a look a ‘business man’ wearing a black suit. This elegant and repeated rhythm is broken by the tall chimney-shaped bays with huge windows that extend upwards – from the level below and onward towards the sky, like Arabian watch- and wind-towers.
Toompuiestee Street is crowded with hotels, but in spite of the good logistic and central location, it is still one of the greenest and most peaceful main streets in Tallinn. The hotel offers 91 guest rooms, restaurant, conference room plus service- and other staff facilities with traditional functions.
Site and function
Hotel L’Ermitage is situated at Toompuiestee Street in the city centre of Talinn just outside the old city boundaries. This site was chosen very carefully and offers views of both the Estonian Parliament and the Pikk Herman tower, one of the symbolic buildings of Estonia and Tallinn. The site where new hotel was erected had been empty since the 2nd World War.
Differ from other hotels by their entire approach and caretaking of every possible detail and are, therefore, often unique within their own category; which means better quality and less interest in the traditional classification system. The hotel industry itself is on the other hand a conservative industry where certain established customs must be followed and expectations to quality are unified in the meeting between customer needs and an affordable business economy. Marking every hotel with a number of stars ranking from zero or one to as many as seven stars (like e.g. the famous Hotel Burj al Arab holding 7 stars and being a landmark of Dubai in the United Arabian Emirates), all hotels can be promoted in a very formalized way by a certification and classification system based on specific standards of luxury, services and comfort.
Materials and windows
The courtyard facades are surprisingly coloured with feminine, soft-reddish cement plates – a contrast to the strict, masculine street facade. Zooming in from far away, the first glimpse of the hotel might be the bright pink back facade peeking out between two old limestone firewalls of the neighbouring buildings. The facades and the part of the roof facing the streets are all covered with the same material – black copper in narrow, vertical tracks or stripes, which almost create a look a ‘business man’ wearing a black suit. This elegant and repeated rhythm is broken by the tall chimney-shaped bays with huge windows that extend upwards – from the level below and onward towards the sky, like Arabian watch- and wind-towers.
Exterior – cuttings and window openings in the main body
As a simplified grotto with sliding marks from an ancient ice glacier the main entrance is differentiated from the dark body of the building – as if something or someone has cut out a huge and very precise bite of the corner. The form of the entrance is contrasting with the solid and rectangular main shape of the building and invites – or persuades – the guest to enter the open corner of the hotel. Next to the entrance a horizontal window band with the same character as show windows of a shop or a showroom is standing out of the building. All together the glass entrance, the restaurant windows at the ground floor and another cut-out window zone in the corner of the building.
On the 3rd floor form a transparent zone of light. A strong metal shield protects the rooms above and behind those windows. Maybe this is an encounter between the state of being alone, staying wellprotected en l’ermitage on the one hand, and gathering, meeting other people and hotel guests in the open public spaces on the other hand. To see or to be seen, seems to be the mysterious question of Hotel L’Ermitage, where a few major details are in focus, such as architectural contrasts and incident light through differently sized windows. The use of VELUX roof windows supports the main idea of placing emphasis on the right spot.
Exterior – cuttings and window openings in the main body
As a simplified grotto with sliding marks from an ancient ice glacier the main entrance is differentiated from the dark body of the building – as if something or someone has cut out a huge and very precise bite of the corner. The form of the entrance is contrasting with the solid and rectangular main shape of the building and invites – or persuades – the guest to enter the open corner of the hotel. Next to the entrance a horizontal window band with the same character as show windows of a shop or a showroom is standing out of the building. All together the glass entrance, the restaurant windows at the ground floor and another cut-out window zone in the corner of the building.
On the 3rd floor form a transparent zone of light. A strong metal shield protects the rooms above and behind those windows. Maybe this is an encounter between the state of being alone, staying wellprotected en l’ermitage on the one hand, and gathering, meeting other people and hotel guests in the open public spaces on the other hand. To see or to be seen, seems to be the mysterious question of Hotel L’Ermitage, where a few major details are in focus, such as architectural contrasts and incident light through differently sized windows. The use of VELUX roof windows supports the main idea of placing emphasis on the right spot.
Architect: Indrek Allman | Estonia| Photographer: Kaido Haagen
Hotel L’Ermitage in Talinn, Estonia, offers a powerful, architectural experience: Being a modern hotel for privacy and short-term ‘good living’, it is at the same time a popular meeting place. To see or to be seen, seems the mysterious question of this building.
Toompuiestee Street is crowded with hotels, but in spite of the good logistic and central location, it is still one of the greenest and most peaceful main streets in Tallinn. The hotel offers 91 guest rooms, restaurant, conference room plus service- and other staff facilities with traditional functions.
Site and function
Hotel L’Ermitage is situated at Toompuiestee Street in the city centre of Talinn just outside the old city boundaries. This site was chosen very carefully and offers views of both the Estonian Parliament and the Pikk Herman tower, one of the symbolic buildings of Estonia and Tallinn. The site where new hotel was erected had been empty since the 2nd World War.
Differ from other hotels by their entire approach and caretaking of every possible detail and are, therefore, often unique within their own category; which means better quality and less interest in the traditional classification system. The hotel industry itself is on the other hand a conservative industry where certain established customs must be followed and expectations to quality are unified in the meeting between customer needs and an affordable business economy. Marking every hotel with a number of stars ranking from zero or one to as many as seven stars (like e.g. the famous Hotel Burj al Arab holding 7 stars and being a landmark of Dubai in the United Arabian Emirates), all hotels can be promoted in a very formalized way by a certification and classification system based on specific standards of luxury, services and comfort.
Materials and windows
The courtyard facades are surprisingly coloured with feminine, soft-reddish cement plates – a contrast to the strict, masculine street facade. Zooming in from far away, the first glimpse of the hotel might be the bright pink back facade peeking out between two old limestone firewalls of the neighbouring buildings. The facades and the part of the roof facing the streets are all covered with the same material – black copper in narrow, vertical tracks or stripes, which almost create a look a ‘business man’ wearing a black suit. This elegant and repeated rhythm is broken by the tall chimney-shaped bays with huge windows that extend upwards – from the level below and onward towards the sky, like Arabian watch- and wind-towers.
Concept
The short version of the aim of Hotel L’Ermitage was to create a small hotel offering personalized service. The architect was given a great deal of freedom to realize this aim which meant that the architecture could get a very personal expression. Directly asked what the name of the hotel signifies, architect Indrek Allmann from the Estonian bureau PLUSS briefly tells that L’Ermitage stands for ‘meeting place’.
There is a strange contradiction between the expressions being/living en l’ermitage and acting socially by gathering or meeting other people. An Eremit or hermit is originally a holy person wanting to pray and live by himself and preferring to avoid others rather than seeking their company.
Living en l’ermitage, the way the eremite lives, has, therefore, for centuries been used about a relaxing, architectonical get-away for the privileged, kings and queens. Could the name of the hotel be a critical comment to the conventional hotel business that normally just offers a dull shelter for privacy rather than a place for gathering people? However that may be, the purpose of Indrek Allmann has clearly been to avoid the simplified and unarticulated result that is widespread among larger buildings and ordinary, fasterected chain hotels.
Background
– designing the hotel industry
Design and architecture is playing an important role in hotel business now more than ever. Specially designed hotels known as designer hotels were introduced as a new marketing and entertainment product by hip designers like Philippe Starck in New York around 1990; and since then, many other new designer hotels with new innovative concepts have been born.
Today every major city of whatever cultural interest – from Copenhagen to Las Vegas – has at least one such designer hotel often with expressive architecture and specially designed interior decoration with high profile designers and artists on the creative production list. Designer hotels others rather than seeking their company. Living en l’ermitage, the way the eremite lives, has, therefore, for centuries been used about a relaxing, architectonical get-away for the privileged, kings and queens.
Could the name of the hotel be a critical comment to the conventional hotel business that normally just offers a dull shelter for privacy rather than a place for gathering people? However that may be, the purpose of Indrek Allmann has clearly been to avoid the simplified and unarticulated result that is widespread among larger buildings and ordinary, fasterected chain hotels Toompuiestee Street is crowded with hotels, but in spite of the good logistic and central location, it is still one of the greenest and most peaceful main streets in Tallinn. The hotel offers 91 guest rooms,
restaurant, conference room plus service- and other staff facilities with traditional functions. However, the number of stars really does not tell much about personal preferences; how the actual mixture of individual experiences, level of charm, well-being or hygiene will result in either a match or missmatch for the customer.
Consequently, a reorientation has gradually taken place on the market for accommodation where large hotels – quite similar to each other – are losing popularity and smaller – more distinct establishments – are gaining market shares.
Concept
The short version of the aim of Hotel L’Ermitage was to create a small hotel offering personalized service. The architect was given a great deal of freedom to realize this aim which meant that the architecture could get a very personal expression. Directly asked what the name of the hotel signifies, architect Indrek Allmann from the Estonian bureau PLUSS briefly tells that L’Ermitage stands for ‘meeting place’.
There is a strange contradiction between the expressions being/living en l’ermitage and acting socially by gathering or meeting other people. An Eremit or hermit is originally a holy person wanting to pray and live by himself and preferring to avoid others rather than seeking their company.
Living en l’ermitage, the way the eremite lives, has, therefore, for centuries been used about a relaxing, architectonical get-away for the privileged, kings and queens. Could the name of the hotel be a critical comment to the conventional hotel business that normally just offers a dull shelter for privacy rather than a place for gathering people? However that may be, the purpose of Indrek Allmann has clearly been to avoid the simplified and unarticulated result that is widespread among larger buildings and ordinary, fasterected chain hotels.
Background
– designing the hotel industry
Design and architecture is playing an important role in hotel business now more than ever. Specially designed hotels known as designer hotels were introduced as a new marketing and entertainment product by hip designers like Philippe Starck in New York around 1990; and since then, many other new designer hotels with new innovative concepts have been born.
Today every major city of whatever cultural interest – from Copenhagen to Las Vegas – has at least one such designer hotel often with expressive architecture and specially designed interior decoration with high profile designers and artists on the creative production list. Designer hotels others rather than seeking their company. Living en l’ermitage, the way the eremite lives, has, therefore, for centuries been used about a relaxing, architectonical get-away for the privileged, kings and queens.
Could the name of the hotel be a critical comment to the conventional hotel business that normally just offers a dull shelter for privacy rather than a place for gathering people? However that may be, the purpose of Indrek Allmann has clearly been to avoid the simplified and unarticulated result that is widespread among larger buildings and ordinary, fasterected chain hotels Toompuiestee Street is crowded with hotels, but in spite of the good logistic and central location, it is still one of the greenest and most peaceful main streets in Tallinn. The hotel offers 91 guest rooms,
restaurant, conference room plus service- and other staff facilities with traditional functions. However, the number of stars really does not tell much about personal preferences; how the actual mixture of individual experiences, level of charm, well-being or hygiene will result in either a match or missmatch for the customer.
Consequently, a reorientation has gradually taken place on the market for accommodation where large hotels – quite similar to each other – are losing popularity and smaller – more distinct establishments – are gaining market shares.
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