London-based hospitality design consultancy, RPW Design, has completed a re-design of A Bar, a chic new cocktail bar in the InterContinental Amstel, Amsterdam.
While Amsterdam’s diverse offering of luxury and designer hotels is ever expanding, the InterContinental Amstel hotel nevertheless retains a unique and celebrated status in the heart of the city’s financial and cultural districts.
Since opening in June, the new A Bar has set the standard for an ongoing programme of works intended to update the hotel, and ultimately to reclaim its position as one of the foremost destinations in Amsterdam.
Often labelled the city’s Grande Dame, the hotel strikes just the right chord with the interior of A Bar – which is set to attract a younger audience without alienating the highly loyal following that only the very best hotels enjoy.
Not only challenged with appealing to this broad demographic, RPW Design was also faced with creating intelligent solutions to the A Bar’s limited back-of-house space and its connections to the rest of the building.
“The bar opens onto a hotel corridor and is located to the rear of the hotel, next to the terrace,” says Jan Wilson of RPW Design. “It also has an extremely high ceiling for a relatively narrow room.”
Part of Jan’s strategy to counter these issues was the introduction of a striking light installation, which comprises eight individual light fittings created from hand-blown glass. After tendering, these were manufactured to Jan’s specification by a supplier based in Austria.
The fittings in fact emerged as one of the most challenging areas of the design, explains Jan: “The Dutch are particularly prescriptive about the use of low energy lighting. The result was a lot of prototypes to make sure that the fittings not only looked good as a sculptural element, but also worked to provide some light to conform to the statutory requirements.”
The smoky blue of the light fittings is artfully echoed in the colour of the leather used for the bespoke chairs, creating a crisp, contemporary feel within the space. Quality crafsmanship and materials form an integral theme throughout the bar, from the bronze chain mail curtains and solid timber broad plank floors, to the polished gold finish back bar, and feature shelving units.
RPW Design always makes a considerable effort to commission and procure artwork that gives each of its design projects a special signature, unique to its location. The A Bar thus features a key image over the back bar by the globally-renowned photographer, Hendrik Kerstens, alongside other artwork reflecting the local contemporary art scene.
Beyond an emphasis on comfort and luxury, the interior of the A Bar bears little resemblance to its hotel host, a shift executed perfectly by the RPW Design team.
