Berlin-based pair Gosia Warrink and Katja Koeberlin from amberdesign crafted wallpapers, rugs and 140 unique artworks for the comodo, inspired by the colours and contours of the Bad Gastein mountains.
At their studio in Berlin-Mitte, Gosia and Katja work chiefly at the intersection of visual communication, art, photography and architecture, offering a new design focus where people are always the centre of attention.
Showcasing their distinct design philosophy and profound understanding of form, function and aesthetics, the pair created over 140 unique designs for the comodo – everything from tapestries and wallpaper to prints and carpets.
Katja: We introduced a great deal of personality into the project. We understand the comodo as a place of encounter, exchange and togetherness. We believe that the design should carry this message and encourage communication.
For the wallpaper, we created topographical drawings using the patterns formed by fine contour lines from elevation maps, describing the mountain tectonics around Bad Gastein. The carpets are also abstractions, inspired by the surrounding mountain gorges and nature.
Gosia: All designs are conceived to complement one another. In the 140 unique prints for the hotel rooms, we reduced huge mountains to A4 collages. For the wall design in the swimming pool, we enlarged a detail taken from a rock just behind the hotel and used this for the over 17-metre-long wall.
We were also deeply inspired by the 1960s’ Radical Design Movement – the period during which the hotel originated.
Katja: Bad Gastein seems to me at once glamorous and anachronistic with its Belle Epoque villas dotting the steep slopes. I love the charm of time-honoured, shabby architecture. It’s great that this traditional spa town is opening itself to new impulses and is now attracting creative people who are working here on joint projects. The place has a very energetic and healing effect.
Gosia: Yes, Bad Gastein offers peace and security as well as strength and life. It has something magical about it. The scenery reminds me of the film “The Grand Budapest Hotel”: picturesque and a little sleepy, with a unique hotel in its midst.
Gosia: On the one hand, it is an intimate, cosy room. On the other, it is thrown wide open as soon as you invite friends and family to join you. Then it comes to life in conversations or when people eat and laugh together. A living room enters into a relationship with those within it and can enrich, calm and enliven them through its design. And, after all, a good relationship is one which never gets boring.
Katja: To me, a living room signifies cosiness, feeling good, warmth, familiarity, candlelight, friends and parties, listening to records, playing cards, watching films, staying up all night. It’s most people’s favourite room because it is so versatile. It is where life takes place – so the name, ‘living room’, is actually very appropriate.
Gosia: We yearn for places we don’t yet know – places where we can find peace, distance from and a connection to the here and now. Places which allow us to release new energies. Human nature needs both: peace and strength, stillness and life. We have attempted to reflect these dualities in our design for the cōmodo.
