Hotel Puerta América, Parking
The Hotel Silken Puerta América in Madrid is an innovative project that involved numerous architects and designers. Teresa Sapey designed the interior of the car park.
“On an emotional level, I have striven to tell a tale about each person’s right to live his or her life as he or she sees fit”. This sentence is clearly a declaration of intentions and reflects the strong advocacy of freedom of choice on which the project Hotel Silken Puerta América Madrid is based. The Italian architect’s idea is based on simple lines and colour. Only an architect like Teresa Sapey would dare to undertake such a radical, colour-saturated proposition in a space that, in theory, is as dark as an underground car park usually is. As she explains, her greatest source of inspiration was Paul Éluard’s poem Freedom, which takes up the entire façade of the Hotel Silken Puerta América Madrid . Indeed, the poem gives shape to the writings imprinted on the wall, thus becoming symbols alluding to freedom to express oneself, to listen, to speak.
“As time goes by I’m more and more convinced that car parks are urban spaces that until now have been largely ignored. I am fascinated by how a space in which functionality is the key can simultaneously appeal to an individual’s emotional side”. A simple iconographic code on the walls leads the guest through the garage. The motifs are a finger pointing to the exits, people running with a dog, a person in a wheelchair.
