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BAR HOTEL RESTAURANT INNERE WERTE • INNER VALUES

Ruhig gestaltete Zimmer sorgen für Entspannung. • Rooms with a calm design ensure relaxation. Die Bäder erinnern an einen Steinbruch. • The bathrooms are reminiscent of a quarry.

T he longing of Germans for the forest, which has been simmering since the Romantic als, coordinated colours and light are inspired by the Ardennes region, by its trees, plants,
era, has recently experienced a renaissance. With city centres in continued lockdown
mosses, berries, flowers, mushrooms, waters and rocks.
mode and a lack of alternatives, a considerably larger number of people than usual are
drawn to places in the back of beyond. Proclaimed aloud or thought of silently, a wish Hunting scenes reinterpreted
flares up again and again: “If only one could travel again and enjoy foreign nature!” The
Belgian Ardennes are such a place of longing for forest lovers. Situated at the same lati- In the interior, the reference to nature is omnipresent. An installation made of faux flo-
tude as Frankfurt am Main, only 360 kilometres further west, is Château de Vignée, near wers suspended from the ceiling in the lobby relates to the becoming and passing
the Belgium municipality of Rochefort. In 2018, Christian Teunissen acquired the classic away of nature. Local materials — marble and natural stones from the area, such as
hunters’ hotel. The Flemish entrepreneur had commissioned the design studio WeWant- Rouge Belge and Gris d’Ardenne — emphasise the connection to the location. The ter-
More to transform the 400-year-old castle into a luxury boutique hotel full of local cha- razzo floor in the lobby is made entirely of marble fragments taken from the former
racter. The restoration and extension of the building fabric was undertaken by the Belgian hotel rooms, and the branching light installation below the ceiling, made especially
firm Atelier 47 Architects. 25 individual rooms, a bar, a lounge, a private dining room, a for the hotel, is inspired by a mood that is very familiar to people who go walking in
Gault & Millau-listed fine dining restaurant, two event venues and a spa area with swim- the woods — namely, the way the early morning sunlight shimmers through the forest
ming pool are available to guests. The 3000-square-metre complex is idyllically situated canopy. The interior reinterprets the characteristics of a traditional hunters’ hotel in a
on the River Lesse and encloses a sheltered courtyard. Château de Vignée was opened at contemporary manner. Animals, of course, cannot be missing. Instead of the previously
an inopportune time exactly one year ago, because it had to close again soon after due common hunting trophies in the form of taxidermy pieces, however, WeWantMore re-
to the Corona pandemic. Now it is possible to welcome guests again. Ruud Belmans, co- sorts to idiosyncratic animal art installations realised in a morbid, yet humoristic, win-
founder and creative director of the Antwerp-based design studio, explains how WeWant- king way. These were created in close cooperation with the Dutch design duo Les Deux
More literally stalked the hotel concept: “Our design process started with a feeling that Garçons. In the hotel restaurant, two cheeky beavers unabashedly gnaw at the wood
we wanted to capture and reflect in the design. We imagined what it must feel like for a cabinet of curiosities. A colourful artwork of five pheasants adorns one wall, and there
hunter to roam the forest at 5 o’clock in the morning.” Accordingly, nature sets the tone also is the tete-a-tete of the two deer in the library. One literally believes one can hear
at Château de Vignée, not in a rustic, but in a rather design-oriented way. Warm materi- the hunters blowing their bugles. Given this symbolism, text and graphics are reduced

118 • AIT 6.2021