New Hotel

New Hotel is the Design Property of the Year 2012 in Athens. New Hotel has been voted and proudly included in the hot list of The Best New Hotels of 2012 by Conde Nast Traveler. The extraordinary creation opened in Athens on the 1st of July 2011 is the new addition of the Yes!Hotels group. Owned by Dakis Joannou, a renowned entrepreneur and distinguished collector of modern art, 'the philosophy of Yes!Hotels is Young, Enthusiastic and Seductive and denotes a commitment to creating a new form of art in hospitality; a finely crafted balance between style and comfort'. New Hotel is the first hotel project exclusively designed by the award winning Brazilian designers Humberto and Fernando Campana and the Design Hotel features outstanding interiors, unusual custom-made furniture and handmade fixtures.

The 79 room design hotel is situated on Filellinon Street in the heart of Athens; next to Syntagma Square (Constitution Square), within walking distance of the Acropolis and the New Acropolis Museum, the Roman ruins, Plaka, the House of Parliament with the changing of the guards, high-street shops, Monastiraki square, the elegant Kolonaki district with stylish cafe, restaurants, bar-clubs and high-end boutique shopping, the business area, theatres and the Metro.

The New Hotel is the first architectural refurbishment project for the Campana brothers. Working with young architects from the department of Architecture of the University of Thessalia, blended their talent, love of restoring, recycling, sharing and respect of local culture along with three traditional Greek themes: the first honour 'Karagiozis', a mischievous folkrore shadow puppet, with golden fairytail characters adorning the walls. The second theme is the 'evil eye'; a bead charm used to protect against the bad omen and bad luck, with impressive, handmade illuminated glass 'eyes'. Lastlly, the third theme focuses to present a glimpse of beautiful old Athens, using wall collages of historic postcards through a very modern design twist.

The hotel was formerly the Olympic Palace Hotel designed in 1958 by Greek architect Iason Rizos. The hotel has been transformed into a pioneer modern design hotel using the unique architectural style of the two Brazilian designers who draw their inspiration from urban street life, contemporary art and the Brazilian favela culture. The Campanas merged original features, furniture and items that pre-existed in the old modernist hotel and manual skills with advanced technologies to develop new interpretations. Some of the original features have been retained, including the 1940s black marble staircase with its solid-wood balustrade. On the reception area and the New Taste bar-restaurant, the fascinating art wall and column installation is all constructed in reclaimed wood as a tribute to the memory of the hotel. Inspired by Campanas iconic Favela chair (1993) the imposing 'Favela' columns are covered with the long, narrow strips of wood; a collage of old furniture. The term Favela originates from the poor neighbourhoods in Brazil.

New Taste bar-restaurant

The New Taste bar-restaurant is an all-day Mediterranean restaurant serving morning buffet breakfast, lunch, a la carte dinner and also caters for take away. New Taste features an authentic espresso bar and serves traditional breads and pastries baked daily, as well as market style fresh salads, grills and Greek specialities. With a modern twist on a nostalgic concept, freshly made daily foods are displayed on blackboards above the counters. The highly innovative menus alternate from lunch sandwiches & salads to delicious dinner plates using the finest, fresh and mostly local organic produce.

Business Centre

On the first floor of New Hotel the meeting rooms are located but here they are called 'Workshop Rooms'. The name derives from the workshop team generated by the Campana brothers for this refurbishment project. Using a laboratorial approach, they constructed a school within the old hotel and was named Campanas' Workshop in Athens. Workshop team had to provide feedback on local modern culture. All meeting rooms are particularly designed to provide natural day light and offer state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, suitable for business, functions or any other events.

New Sense

New Sense wellness corner and gym welcomes all hotel and local guests to experience a feeling of well-being in body, mind and spirit. Within New Sense you can admire art installations such as Laurie Anderson's 'Numbers and Runners', Barbara Kruger's Untitled Lenticular photograph of 1985 as well as 'New Kaktorium' photographs by Tassos Vrettos.

Click here to view the New Sense brochure and treatment details.