Us and Theme

If Venice, the Wild West, or Asia can be themes for parks, casinos, or hotels, then why not contemporary architecture? “Theming” has, after all, been a part of architecture for quite some time, as the collection of essays Variations on a Theme Park, edited by Michael Sorkin (New York: The Noon Day Press, 1992), makes evident. Even Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli can be seen as a theme park of sorts, so architecture is on some level intrinsically bound with the very idea of theming.

What is significant about Madrid’s Hotel Puerta de América, where each floor is designed by a different architect, it is a theme hotel of contemporary architecture and design. Of course, merely having interiors on different floors designed by different architects or designers does not necessarily a theme hotel make. What makes Hotel Puerta de América one is the fact that clients choose which designer they would like to sleep with when they make a reservation.

In most hotels, room choice is normally limited to size or degree of luxury. But here, the room’s design becomes the object of choice.

There are lots of theme hotels designed by well-known architects and designers. But the themes of these hotels are “Santa Fe” or “Swan Lake”: the architecture may be themed, but the theme is not architecture itself.

Curiously, the Hotel Puerta de América does not bill itself as a theme hotel. The word “theme” is absolutely nowehere to be found in the hotel’s promotional literature or on its website. The prices are also quite a bit higher than other theme hotela. Perhaps this explains why.

In case anyone is wondering, the rooms most in demand are Zaha Hadid’s.