PURO Warszawa Stare Miasto
PURO Warszawa Stare Miasto is a minimalist hotel located in Warsaw, Poland, designed by GamFratesi. PURO Warszawa Stare Miasto occupies a peculiar position in Warsaw’s Old Town – a UNESCO World Heritage site reconstructed after near-total wartime destruction. The hotel stands on Canaletta Street, named for Bernardo Bellotto, the 18th-century painter whose detailed cityscapes became essential blueprints for Warsaw’s post-war reconstruction. This geographic coincidence creates an unexpected conceptual framework: a hotel designed by Nordic minimalists situated on a street that honors the very artist whose work enabled the city’s architectural resurrection.
GamFratesi’s approach extends beyond typical hospitality design. When PURO founder Rune Askevold commissioned the Copenhagen-based studio to design the entire experience, the brief demanded total spatial authorship – from envelope to teaspoon. The result reads as a deliberate counterpoint to the ornate Baroque and Renaissance facades surrounding it. Where Warsaw’s Old Town announces historical weight through decorative elaboration, PURO Warszawa responds with material honesty and spatial clarity.
The ground floor dissolves traditional hotel boundaries. MUND – named for the Scandinavian word for mouth – functions simultaneously as restaurant, bakery, wine bar, and bistro. Rather than segregating these programs, the design creates spatial ambiguity. Dinesen wood flooring establishes continuity across functional zones while custom veneered cabinetry and paneled ceilings define discrete areas without rigid separation. The layout borrows from Danish residential planning, where communal spaces flow naturally rather than announcing their transitions.
Material selection anchors the Nordic vocabulary in physical presence. Travertine stone surfaces carry visual weight without opulence, their sedimentary layering suggesting geological rather than decorative time. Custom furniture pieces – stone side tables, specially designed armchairs – occupy space with sculptural confidence. The palette draws from Bellotto’s paintings: muted earth tones and softened chromatics that reference Warsaw’s reconstructed past without mimicking its architectural language.
In the 192 guest rooms, GamFratesi curates Scandinavian design heritage alongside contemporary production. Pieces from Gubi, Louis Poulsen, Fredericia, and Carl Hansen & Son establish lineage to mid-century Nordic modernism, while Koyori ceramics introduce Japanese material sensibility. This is not eclecticism but careful assembly – each object selected for longevity and tactile quality rather than stylistic coherence. Linen robes, Boreal cosmetics, and studio-designed ceramics extend the material narrative into daily ritual.
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