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Hotel WunnersWat

Hotel WunnersWat
Germany , Verl

New life for an award-winning half-timbered gem

The WunnersWat Hotel in Verl, which has won two awards, can look back on a long history.

The 25,000-strong town of Verl, located 15 kilometres south of Bielefeld, has a new architectural gem that is also an old one:

In August 2019, the WunnersWat Hotel celebrated its reopening. Its centrepiece, a half-timbered house from 1612, looks back on an eventful history.

Hotel WunnersWat
Award-winning interior design: Gold and yellow tones run like a leitmotif through the interior of the hotel. This is also the case when looking into this open bathroom.
Photo: Frank Schoepgens

It was already an infirmary and post office; since 1882 it has been an inn with a hotel attached later. The house, which has been a listed building since 1987, is still the eye-catcher of the ensemble, which consists of three buildings in total.

It has also already received two awards: the "Münchner Stoff Frühling Interior Award" in 2020 and "R&B - Die schönsten 50 Restaurants & Bars in Deutschland" in 2021, with which the awarding Callwey Verlag, in cooperation with the Association of German Interior Designers and the German Hotel and Restaurant Association, among others, selects outstanding gastronomic interior design concepts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 

Continuing to build in the monument

Architect Kai Beckmann and interior designer Kathrin Reinkemeier have transformed the exterior and interior of the ensemble into a coherent whole that does not deny its history and at the same time meets today's demands for comfort and atmosphere.

For this purpose, the senior member of the building family was renovated and its half-timbered structure made visible again on the outside. The interior was gutted and the floor plan restructured, but the restaurant and its entrance were left in the familiar place. Six of the 60 rooms are located on the first floor. A new feature is a cube-shaped glass connecting building that is inserted between the old and a new building from 1996. It houses the hotel entrance - for the first time, the building now has a real lobby with reception and a bar, which extend to the right into the 1990s building. This was also renovated and converted and now also includes the breakfast room and other rooms. The lion's share of the guest rooms is housed in the new addition to the rear, for which a brick building from the 1970s had to make way. The two-storey building has been given a staggered storey with a large terrace and a wide view over Verl. Conferences or larger celebrations can be held here. Finally, the basement houses the wellness area.

Kai Beckmann countered the former height differences and ramps with the trick of inserting a central staircase with a lift that connects all parts of the building. Their floors fit together via mezzanines; the entire ensemble is now barrier-free.

Hotel WunnersWat
Sometimes classically modern, sometimes with a historic slate façade: this is how the WunnersWat Hotel presents itself.
Photo: Frank Schoepgens

Closely coordinated

The architect and interior designer worked closely together and were able to coordinate structural measures and materials for the subsequent interior design from the very beginning. Katharina Reinkemeier was inspired by what was already there and developed it further. The colours black and brass dominate the foyer and the bar. Like a leitmotif, certain elements - such as gold and yellow tones - recur throughout the hotel. Window panels on the façade of the new building pick up on this and thus intertwine the interior and exterior with each other. All rooms, ranging in size from 20 to 40 square metres, are individually furnished with great attention to detail; historical artefacts combine with modern furnishings in a spolia-like manner, open half-timbered beams contrast with cloud patterns on walls and floors. At the "Münchner Stoff Frühling 2020" trade fair, the concept of the coexistence of old and new was awarded the first prize of the Interior Award in the "Contract" category.

Hotel WunnersWat
With its very flat components, it can be fitted virtually flush into the wall: the TECElux Mini actuator plate in white.
Example image from TECE

In the laudatory speech it says: "The jury was enthusiastic about how the half-timbered building was carefully modernised, how the historical elements were staged and playfully revisited with patterns. Something unique - something very special." With the latter, the jury picks up on the name of the hotel: WunnersWat comes from the Low German and means exactly that: something special.

Flush plates set a counterpoint with simplicity

Despite the wealth of detail in the fittings, the planners chose restrained, elegant elements from TECE for the bathrooms and the SPA area. The WC push plates from the TECElux Mini (shown here in white) and TECEsquare series are characterised above all by the fact that they can be fitted flush into the wall as very flat components. Depending on the background, the white or black TECElux Mini either blend in visually or, on the contrary, provide a colour contrast. TECEsquare, on the other hand, is available in glass or metal versions; the elegant black glass version was used in WunnersWat.

Hotel WunnersWat
Placed on a light background, the TECElux Mini in white almost blends in visually.
Example image from TECE