On the ground floor, the hotel’s lobby is intertwined with the shisha bar Chill Cafe in an eccentric space that boldly combines rough concrete surfaces and exposed ceiling services with colourful carpets and hand-crafted wooden furniture, setting the tone for the entire hotel. And if that wasn’t enough to convince you of MIXD studio’s playful approach, the designers managed to acquire a number of old gondolas that were once part of the local ski lifts which now hang from the ceiling for guests to sit on.

Clever references to the Winter Olympics such as this abound throughout the hotel. Large winter landscapes by Polish illustrator and graphic designer Karol Banach colourfully grace the a-la-carte restaurant and other spaces, a pair of vintage skis painted in an orange hue hangs on the wall of every guestroom while a whimsical portrait of the 1984 Winter Olympics mascot, Vućko the wolf, hangs above the fireplace in the lobby. Such iconography is also playfully juxtaposed with handcrafted details like hand-woven kilims indicating the guestroom number and the installation of hand-forged metal trays in the restaurant. Together with a wellness and spa area in the basement and a bar on the 15th floor blessed with panoramic views of the city and the surrounding mountains, the hotel thankfully complements its aesthetic exuberance with some good-old pampering.