Architecture firm Spagnulo&Partners designs the 5-star Ara Maris hotel in Sorrento
The 5-star Ara Maris hotel in Sorrento (Via Correale 15) is an architectural jewel of the Amalfi Coast designed by Milan-based firm Spagnulo&Partners.
Ara Maris hotel: the project
The firm worked on the hotel’s façade, interiors and garden making sustainable stylistic and design choices. The Ara Maris hotel is located in a completely renovated 1950s building. On the main façade, tone-on-tone panels with different shapes are developed with the intention of freeing the building from the extremely symmetrical aesthetic typical of the original architectural context.
Outdoor spaces
The outdoor spaces of the Ara Maris hotel play a key role in the continuous interplay between inside and outside. While the front of the hotel offers a splendid view of the Gulf of Sorrento, the back overlooks an expansive garden of almost 2,000 square meters, characterized by organic shapes, a wide variety of plants – including citrus trees, palms, a large magnolia, selected by Spagnulo&Partners in collaboration with local plant nursery professionals – and different materials, such as natural stone, wood, and ceramics. Surrounded by this lush garden, the over 30-meter-long ellipsoidal pool is decorated with contemporary furniture, stone, wood, and ceramic floors.
Material research
Like the entire Amalfi Coast, Sorrento has an extraordinary variety of identity elements, discovered and reinterpreted in the hotel in a contemporary way. In fact, in the study of color and choice of materials there are many references to the culture of Campania.
An emblematic example is provided by the Giovanni De Maio ceramics, handmade on a terracotta base, used in the interior design of the bathrooms and bedrooms. The tiles, almost all designed by Spagnulo&Partners, have the typical colors of the Sorrento tradition – blues and reds. For the floors of the various environments, the recurring materials are Listone Giordano shaded woods from the maritime tradition, neutral natural stones, and raw fabrics made in blue, green and red yarns using the ancient techniques of Mariantonia Urru.
Vases and objects from the Sorrento craft tradition, made by local artisans also designed by Spagnulo&Partners, complete the styling.
Photo: Stefano Pinci and BPau
