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NINI ANDRADE SILVA & JORGE COSME

On the one hand, overlooking the verdant gardens from which it takes its name, Lisbon’s Fontana Park Hotel is a fitting reflection of both the lush nature found in the nearby Fontana Park and the cosmopolitan, lively atmosphere of one of Europe’s long-standing port cities. On the other, it’s a beacon of modernity with a striking colour scheme and an avant-garde vibe. Once an iron foundry, the building stood empty and neglected for a long, long time. But both nature and nurture were lodestars for Portuguese architect Francisco Aires Mateus, who achieved what Fontana Park’s general manager, Jorge Cosme, proudly describes as “a combination of the modern and Lisbon’s one hundred years of recent history” by preserving the original building’s façade and romantic details.
“Fontana Park isn’t a hotel for everyone,” Cosme explains. “With the black and white, it’s a full-on concept from A to Z, but the concept is simple. We just want the hotel to be a home for discerning people, modern people, young people and people who are young at heart.” This youthful allure derives from a fresh and friendly atmosphere that delightfully contrasts with the historical details and visual drama
“The black and white idea came first,” Nini says. One realises she’s explaining the starting point of the hotel’s chromatic concept as well as connecting her thinking as an interior designer with the creative process central to her work as an abstract artist. Her vibrant personality is an interesting contrast with her consistent love of the colour – or non-colour – black. But as she sits in the light-filled, white-hued restaurant Saldanha Mar, the designer confesses that she loves black less than the other colour that reigns over Fontana Park’s overall scheme. “What is my favourite colour?” she asks herself musingly, almost humorously. “Well, it’s white. I really like turquoise. I have always loved black. But it is definitely white.” (Cosme, on the other hand, says he definitely favours black. Both, by the way, are wearing head-to-toe black.)
“An interviewer called me ‘ninimalist’ because my name is Nini, and instead of being a minimalist, I always like to give warmth to any design concept. I like to do things with a dash of fantasy.” Today Nini runs two offices in Portugal that produce comprehensive hotel concepts – from architecture and interior design to furniture design and innovative lighting concepts – for clients around the world. The award-winning designer is even planning to open a Dubai-based studio in 2009. Last September, she presented a collection of interior and exterior furniture at a Shanghai fair, in partnership with the Asian market. Although minimalism strips objects down to their barest, most fundamental forms, Nini always ensures that the objects she incorporates in her spaces express not only a spatial clarity but also an energetic and passionate creativity. The soul of her design sensibility lies in its merging of high culture and nature. And the Fontana Park Hotel’s appeal is the apex of Nini’s artful streamlining, organic and metropolitan influences. “I like when you walk in and go ‘wow,’” Nini explains with characteristic passion. “When you walk in and don’t say ‘wow,’ then my work didn’t work. The important part of my work is not what you see, but what you feel.” Luckily, both the “wow” factor and the level of sublime contentment work just fine here, amidst the black and white. «