BERLIN (dpa) – It can be a topsy-turvy world at Berlin’s latest hotel where new guests are apt to feel a little disorientated at times.
The doors and walls are out of alignment, beds rotate, wash basins are made of old beer kegs, and table and chairs are hitched to the ceiling in the “Upside-Down” room.Like in Alice in Wonderland nothing is quite what it seems in this place. But then, that’s the way 40-year-old composer-artist Lars Stroschen has planned it at the “Propeller Island City Lodge”, Berlin’s most bizarre hotel close to the Kurfuerstendamm.A tangled web of copper pipes run along walls adorned with computer-generated paintings and each room has its own unique design.“I’ve invested eight years of my life in Propellor Island,” says Stroschen, a tall, sensitive, gaunt-faced Berliner, with a taste for avantgarde music and computer art forms.It all began when the composer realised he needed an income to finance costly music projects. When recording contracts expired, he launched his own record company, producing some 20 CD albums.“Then I had this idea of transforming two of the biggest rooms in my flat into something out of the ordinary,” he says. From the exercise emerged the “Castle” and “Blue” rooms.“They proved a big hit with people from England looking for somewhere to stay on visits to Berlin,” he says.Encouraged, Lars Stroschen talked with the owners of the run-down hotel property at Nr. 58 Albrecht Achillesstrasse, hoping they’d sell it to him. They did after he’d gained bank credits.Fired with enthusiasm, Lars was soon designing a very different kind of hotel experience.“It’s been a blood, sweat and tears all the way”, says talented organist and sound artist, who adds that a chorus of architects, tradesmen, friends and city officials initially warned him against going ahead with the project.Working alone at first, he later drafted in five friends to help him execute his designs.The artist has now completed 25 of 30 rooms on three floors of the 100-year-old property. Each has its own unique flavour.The “therapy” room, equipped with fleece-lined white walls and a hospital-style operation bed, is bathed in a pink glow, and provides guests with a soothing refuge from big-city stress.For those who like a more raw approach, Propeller Island offers the “Jail Room”, with barred windows, striped walls and an escape hole leading to the balcony. Or a guest room in which lion’s cages are found complete with mattresses.In the “Upside Down” room, a bed, table and chairs hang from the ceiling. The real beds are concealed beneath the floor.“Cool” was how Nathalie Dalibro, from the German Harz region, described her three-night stay at the hotel. After initial bewilderment, Florian Krueger, 21, says he found sleeping in “The Table” room, a “super experience”.The hotel, located in a nondescript street looks dull from the outside, but once inside tourists find it full of surprises. In one of the rooms there are allegedly 327 different ways guests can view themselves via mirrored walls, ceilings and furniture in the “Narcissism Quarter”.“So far four apartments have been used to create a succession of guest rooms at Propeller Island City Lodge, occupying 750 square metres of space, and 3,000 square metres of walls, every inch of which have been painted.”Ultimately, 30 rooms will be available for tourists, costing about 100 euros (87 U.S. dollars) a night each.Stroschen says he had to sacrifice his private life for years realising the hotel project but now its finally functioning he’s excited. The hotel opened last December.The Propellor Island City Lodge at 58 Albrecht Achilles Strasse in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf distict is contactable on the Internet via: www.propeller-island.com oder.de.
