Hotel Mercure Białystok
The design of Hotel Mercure Białystok is heavily influenced by the history, culture, events, and surroundings of Podlasie, with nature being a major inspiration seen in the green walls and forest-themed patterns, completed by MIXD.
This hospitality brand has a strong reference to local specifics in its DNA: history, culture, events, and surroundings. According to this characteristic, starting from the reception area and the lobby, the space is saturated with inspirations from Podlasie, so that visitors immediately feel curious and drawn into the story of the region.
On the left side of the entrance, there is a wall with an irregular mirror hidden among plants. It looks exactly like the Biebrza River seen from a bird’s eye view, meandering through wetlands, peat bogs, and meadows. This place is known to nature enthusiasts from around the world – as many as 250 species of birds live here, and their spring mating season is the peak of the tourist ornithological season. The hotel library is full of nature and landscape photography albums. There is also a mysterious portrait of a lady in a richly decorated dress. Is it Katarzyna Branicka, who together with her husband Jan Klemens created a palace called the Podlasie Versailles? We will not know this, because the author of this likeness, Martyna Berger, hid her face behind a huge bouquet of flowers – as if picked from the beds of a Baroque French garden. Finally, from behind the reception desk flashes the sign “Saluton!” – a greeting in Esperanto – an artificial language invented by Ludwik Zamenhoff from Bialystok.
The interiors of the hotel are definitely inspired by nature. The dark, saturated green of the walls resembles the color of the forest backwoods, and the pattern on the wallpapers in the restaurant and conference room – vapors floating over forest wetlands. In the restaurant, it is enough to look up to face the real king of the local fauna – the European bison. But there are also less obvious references. The windows of the hotel restaurant face east. Guests descending for breakfast in the morning can feel like they are in the forest in the early morning – when the trees cast long shadows and filter the rays through the branches and leaves. The light also effectively emphasizes the color of the glass inserts in the decorative metal grille covering the restaurant buffet – this element of the interior is inspired by local wooden architecture, especially the openwork details of houses. As dusk falls, the light climate changes. Tom Dixon’s alabaster Stone Wall sconces give a subdued, moody light, as do lamps with woven basket shades hanging over the tables in the restaurant.
Mysterious, intimate, elegant. In this mix, there is also a place for a pinch of folk inspirations – although given in the haute couture style. The designer of carpets with a colorful ethnic pattern, strongly associated with Belarusian embroidery and oriental carpets, is none other than Monsieur Christian Lacroix himself. Another folk flavor can be discovered in the gym. The wall with floral wallpaper looks like one of the works of Iłarion Daniluk, a self-taught primitive painter, famous in Podlasie. This talented artist loved flowers and willingly placed them in his paintings.
Design: MIXD
Design Team: Piotr Kalinowski, Marta Jakubas, Paweł Panek, Joanna Mazurek, Martina Mirecki, Jolanta Cioroch, Joanna Paterska
Photography: Moodauthors
