T

he Hotel de Mar features 137 rooms and what is perhaps most impressive in Coderch’s designs, is that each room has a view of the sea. For the architect, this was essential; That every guest had a view, everyone was equal in their experience. This led to the unique, stepped-like shape of the building that allows sea views as well as views onto the surrounding garden and pools. It is visionary ideas like this that make Hotel de Mar, 60 years later, so relevant and important. 

Along with Coderch, Barcelona-based architects and designers, Alfonso Milá and Federico Correa, were given charge to do the interior decoration of the rooms and social spaces, including a striking, red entertainment room. Milá and Correa’s designs fit in with the architecture and the era, in seamless union. Minimal yet elegant furniture, including lamps by Miguel Milá, Alfonso’s brother, whose TMC standing lamp can be seen around the hotel’s social spaces.  

One of the local residents, who was excited by this new hotel, watching its construction from his own modernist temple on the hillside nearby, was Joan Miró. Just a few years before, he had commissioned José Lluis Sert to design his studio, a stunning, sculptural, modernist structure that is another architectural gem on the island. Miró was one of the first guests, and a regular visitor, and today, the hotel features seven of his prints in the lobby, along with archival materials such as drawings and books that mark the history of this now iconic hotel. 

In a moment when Mallorca is soul-searching about the impact of tourism, and its future on the island, the celebration of this hotel serves as a way to think about the positive return that the industry can sometimes offer –– when done right. Respect for the landscape, sustainable and long-term planning, appreciation for place and welcoming community not just one-time guests. Maybe we can still learn something from the past?  

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