Brazil 1
There are other former maternity hospitals that have been turned into hotels. Four Seasons Osaka comes immediately to mind. But what is unique about the 187-key Rosewood San Paulo is that, as well as the conversion of the 1923 Matarazzo maternity hospital with its still-working church, there’s a now quasi-integral Jean Nouvel tower, 25 floors high – it’s on the background of the image above. The Nouvel brings in typical neo-brutalist modernity with the architect’s typical use of looking-bashed concrete and metal grills that emulate wood (here Nouvel has had to contend with the whole of the exterior slowly being covered in Amazon plants and trees, some of which reach up to 100 feet. They have to cut back the greenery on a daily basis because otherwise you simply can’t see out of some rooms).
The developer had also ‘done’ Royal Monceau Raffles in Paris. He worked there with Philippe Starck, as he has done here, but now it seems Starck has softened. Suite 614, once the main maternity suite, still has Starck’s lacquered tigerwood walls but only to a height of three metres and pictures, and a Brazilian granite and the must-have guitar, on a hanger, can be moved to wherever in the room you, the guest, want (if you want a guitar lesson, no problem, Pablo or one of the other concierges can arrange a 45-minute lesson from young students, with all income going to the city’s conservatorium). The sixth floor corridor, by the way, is a deliberately chaotic kaleidoscope, representing the plethora of tribes in Brazil.
The suite’s 1960s circular carpet is similarly multicoloured. Its colours are picked up by two banana-shaped sofas, which have comment-worthy cushions, each unique. One shows what looks like a hand of bananas but is in fact, a stylized, faceless human in front of a cactus, totally inappropriate, but who cares? A Marshall radio sits on a solid wooden block. There’s a modern Italian rocker, light wood and string. The desk is more a storage space with sockets either end. A standard lamp has ten cantilevered shelves going around it in a spiral, each big enough for one hardback book. There’s a very modern wooden drinks trolley with enough alcohol types to make an entire Brazilian battalion drunk. The entertainment cabinet, which has an illy cafe on top of it and more alcohols, is mirror-covered. The inside of the main door is also mirror-covered, as are the open doors leading through to the bedroom. The bedroom picks up colors in its carpet. There are eight white pillows, their cases, like the sheets, pulled thread work.
The bathroom’s marble shouts that fifty shades of grey, paired superbly, are not enough. Workmanship everywhere is meticulous. And now to lunch in the outside area of Le Jardin, one of at least six eating options.. There’s so much greenery, both inside and out, that it doesn’t really seem to matter whether you are in or out. It’s a simple menu that could last all day. Girlahead started with salmon tartare on avocado and went on to another appetizer, Brazilian burrata with figs. This is a meeting place where the president of another South American country might sit with a local politician….
