The metal villa of inventor Manfred Heler has grown up on the roof of the Hilton group hotel in Metz, France. The Art Nouveau, 19th-century interiors of the house have blended with the boxy exterior, and the interiors of the Maison Heler hotel allude to the passion and love of the building’s owner. The thing is, Manfred Heler never existed, and the whole story of the inventor and his runaway villa was invented by the building’s architect Philippe Starck. A book, abstract Heler exhibits and a collection of the fictional inventor’s personal objects were created for the project.
Villa in the clouds
In a modern part of the southern district of Metz, a massive hotel has been built with a rather abstract roof. The eccentricities of Maison Heler even trump the tented massing of the nearby Centre Pompidou-Metz. The rough stone lined facade of the nine-storey building emphasises the heaviness of its boxy exterior. In a sense, the hotel’s main building is a piece of land pulled out of the ground on which the fictional Heller villa formerly stood.
The tin-roofed house is intended as an homage to the 19th-century villas that were built in the Lorraine region. The admiration for cast iron at the time resulted in the fanciful and ornate architecture of bridges, pavilions, townhouses and just houses. The owner of the tin villa is Manfred Heler, an inventor who embodies the human spirit of discovery. According to a book written by architect Philippe Starck, Heler was sitting in an armchair when suddenly his house began to shake and after a while he found himself on top of an upended patch of his plot of land.
Interiors like a fairy tale
The story of an inventor helped to create the rooms of the Hotel Maison Heler. Inside, you can admire the fictional inventor’s abstract experiments such as an axe with a blade in the middle of the handle, an inverted rocker or a crystal hammer. As well as creating not-so-practical objects, Heler also loved a woman called Rose, to whom he gave a restaurant (brasserie) located on the ground floor.
Named after Heler’s beloved, the restaurant was tiled with glazed tiles. The delicate porcelain colour was juxtaposed with pink details and a strong contrast of dark furniture. Pink cutlery and plates emphasise the fabulousness of the room hung with Heler’s abstract designs.
The six middle floors of the building are occupied by 104 hotel rooms. The décor of the rooms is synonymous with luxury and comfort, with small details reminiscent of the story created by Starck. The walls of the bright rooms are decorated with exposed, smooth concrete, marble, tiles and sometimes plain white paint. Interestingly, coins with various likenesses are embedded in the concrete walls. The dark wood of the furniture, on the other hand, has been carved with characters that are part of Heller’s secret alphabet. According to the architect, solving the cipher will help to better understand his mysterious tale.
In the host’s house
The most astonishing feature of the hotel is, of course, Heller’s villa located on the roof. Beneath the metal sheets of the house hides the hotel dining room, whose rooms are laid out as in a real house. The interior design is a wealth of style that can be described as neo-secession. The lamellas on the walls are made of embossed dark green leather, while wooden details add to the cosy atmosphere of the interior. Dark leather is also used for the comfortable furniture, which is more reminiscent of the design elements of a living room than a dining room.
The architect wanted guests to feel as if they were in the actual home of a wealthy inventor who invites them to dine with him. Hence the numerous family photographs, carpets and personal objects. La Maison de Manfred features many dishes from the host’s childhood, such as eggs Lorraine-style, Magdalenes or Montbéliarde beef tartare.
Hereditary artistry
It is worth noting the family touch on the part of the designer. Stained-glass windows made by the architect’s daughter, Ara Starck, were inserted in some of the windows. A total of 19 colourful glass puzzles delight with their abstract patterns. The art of Starck’s daughter is intended to refer to the history of Metz and the cathedral architecture.
This full-fledged villa also consists of terraces, which can be accessed from the dining room level. On the ninth floor, you can sit directly against the tin walls embossed with the monogram ‘MH’. The view from the terrace overlooks the distant historic city centre and the modern buildings of the Le Sablon district.
The Hotel Maison Heler in Metz is one of the most interesting and at the same time the most secluded projects of contemporary architecture. A fairytale tale written by the architect ties the entire project together, and the individual rooms allow you to delve into the strange inventions of a fictional inventor. It is rare for an architect to pay so much attention to the story his project is meant to tell, and in Metz this has been done masterfully. All the more so because the hotel is not just the architect’s fairy tale, but also a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing building that compliments the neighbourhood with its uncommonness.
Photo source: STARCK
Read also: Architecture | Curiosities | Hotel | France | Metal | whiteMAD on Instagram
