Hi Hotel, Nice, France

The design concept for boutique Hi Hotel on the Cote d’Azur is imaginative, innovative, and refreshing. It is a place where notions of luxury and comfort are given a contemporary twist.

The pearly white, ex-boarding house, stands on the avenue des Fleurs in Nice. The fun begins right away, as you walk through the funky purple-tinted glass door at the design hotel. Flanking the ramp leading up to the front desk are two low concrete walls with speakers moulded into their surfaces. Here, the unbelievably friendly and smiling staff invited me to make myself at home. Music plays a central role in the daily life of the Hi Hotel. Thanks to French electronic-music label F Communications, melodies fill the space day and night. So, before checking in to the design hotel, please check out the music at http://www.fcom.fr to see if it is to your taste.

The facilities

The young French designer Matali Crasset used a delicious palette of raspberry, pistachio, vanilla and chartreuse for the interiors of this boutique hotel. A mezzanine stacked with books donated by museums, galleries and publishers overlooks the double-height bar and dining area, where five-star chef Alain Llorca’s cuisine is served in petits bocaux, or small rubber-sealed jars. This innovative cuisine service allows visitors to choose their meals from a self-service counter in the kitchen and avoid the stiffness of a formal restaurant. At the far end of the restaurant is la nacelle, a birch plywood structure that surrounds guests in a light, protective embrace, and resembles the basket of a hot-air balloon. At night, the volume of the music at the design hotel and the strobe lights instantly turn the ground floor into a nightclub.

The design hotel’s name, Hi Hotel, derives from the red mark, or hi, found on the koi carp. And since there is a goldfish, or 'red fish' in French, in each room, the name is appropriate. As well as the one-syllable greeting, the owners Philippe Chapelet and Patrick Elouarghi also see the name as an abbreviation for hotel international as the Hi Hotel serves a good amount of international travellers. The name could also stand for hotel interactive as guests have access to Windows XP- and broadband-equipped laptops 24/7.

The rooms

The 38-room boutique hotel has no less than nine types of rooms. I picked the one called 'Strate'. The stratified colour scheme on the walls indicates different functions at different levels – white at the base indicates storage, exemplified by a floor safe, and blue at the top invites guests to have sweet dreams. I wouldn’t normally sleep in the same room as I perform my morning offices, but the glass shower and toilet cubicles, in yellow and purple respectively, stand on metal-framed platforms that transform ordinary activities into small performances.

One of Hi Hotel’s less radical rooms is called Monospace. This room is divided into three areas distinguished by different colours and materials: an invigorating red sleeping area; a cool white, lounge area with a light wood finish; and a refreshing blue bathroom with a resin floor. ‘White & White’ is a room with a clinical atmosphere, featuring a bed that looks like a table and a bath that looks like a bed. A room called ‘Digital’ has pixilated décor, and ‘Technocorner’ is dedicated to audiovisual delights.

Matali Crasset's world is multipurpose. A poof turns into a table. A small padded table becomes a footstool. And a tabletop converts into a shelf that slides into the wall. Her work has a whimsical nature - what the French call ludique, meaning 'to play' and 'to experiment'. She wants us to have fun. The Hi Hotel and staff certainly invite us to do that.