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HILLSIDE SU HOTEL ANTALYA, TURKEY |
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ARCHITECTURE / INTERIOR DESIGN |
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| Eren Talu |
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On a green bank overlooking the Mediterranean, the Hillside Su hotel offers itself up as a clean white stage on which guests are invited to live out Turkish designer Eren Talu’s dazzling disco dream.
The 1960s-inspired hotel in the popular tourist destination Antalya derives its name from the Turkish word for water and is a remarkable contemplation of clarity and transparency. White is the hotel’s colour of choice, but Talu breaks up its monotony with a dazzling light display that begins the moment you enter the reception area. Six disco balls, each measuring six feet in diameter, hang in the six-floor atrium lobby. At dusk, they start to spin, launching a spectacular light show that is at once mesmerising and playful. Talu, one of Turkey’s internationally-known designers, has created a stage on which neither designer furniture nor fixed settings play the leading roles but rather funky details that never cease to surprise the guests. The lobby, as well as the Iroko-wood deck of the expansive pool area, which acts as a socialising magnet, serve his intentions very well indeed.
The Hillside Su’s 294 rooms are sleek white cubes of calm. The low-level white plinths that serve as beds feature convenient pull out tables. Lava lamps and the goldfish bowls each guest receives upon checking in, provide the only quirky details to Talu’s sparse interiors. If the breezy pace and soft beats of ambient music were a design concept, they would be embodied perfectly by the Su. Since opening in 2003, the hotel has become a destination in itself and a pretty hot one at that. |
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