21/10/2026
SANTARÉM.
Character versus Characteristic.
The perks of being a side-kick.
Memory is quite short these days (as are cake and coffee breaks).
As Hotel Design descended into a boring blend of greys and whites with a Scandi “feeling”, which is an irony in itself because Scandi style has no significant historical connection to the Hospitality industry, Hotels started to look the same, and feel the same. Bland, boring, without any personality. As Samantha would say in S*x and the City, “It looks like a fight between Chinatown and Chanel”.
People forgot what Anouska Hempel, Jacques Garcia, Jacques Grange or Andrée Putman did, and what they hoped for as something gained form: personality.
Taste, and we mean good taste, became “irrelevant” as people started saying that there is no such thing as taste. But there is, oh there is.
As Julia Roberts said at the Rodeo Drive shop in Pretty Woman, “Big mistake, big, huge!”.
For our Hotel project in Santarém we followed a conscious drive into strong colours and textures, and a cozy, warm and tactile feeling.
We wanted it to feel innately personal, and put you immediately at ease.
Functional doesn’t need to be ill-fitting, or robotic. It doesn’t need to feel uncomfortable or unpleasant to look at. Santarém is therefore a case-study in designing something which has loads of character while avoiding being characteristic. It pulls on all of Ribatejo’s strong points and values, and provides clever and interesting solutions to a complex problem we face as Architects: Hotels were born out of the expression of HOSPITALITY. Let’s not forget that.
Photos by Francisco Nogueira
