In his opinion, this method of work is the only correct one. When an architect only determines how the building will look from the outside, and interior designers, who often do not pay any attention to the features of the overall project, are engaged in all the premises, including the largest and most important, then this is a "schizophrenic approach", says Jean Nouvel.
However, in Vienna, he did not do without partners. The colored ceilings of public areas - lobbies and restaurants - were created by video artist Pipilotti Rist; Nouvel's permanent collaborator Patrick Blanc closed the adjacent firewall with a green wall, while the walls of the rooms were delicately decorated with text by artists Alain Bony and Henri Laboile.
Nouvel himself turned to minimalism in this project in a formal and coloristic aspect. The glass facades of the 75-meter-high prismatic tower are tinted in gray, black and white on the south, west and north sides, respectively; from the east, the wall was left transparent. By the same principle, the rooms facing these facades are monochrome. There are no paintings on their walls, they must be replaced by windows: thanks to the height and the favorable location of the hotel, spectacular views of the center of Vienna open from there.
The first overseas subsidiary of the German design chain Stilwerk will occupy four floors of the building.
