MM:NT

The launch of MM:NT Berlin Lab marks a pioneering move by award-winning apartment hotel operator, Adina Hotels. A first of its kind, MM:NT Berlin Lab is an ever-evolving mini-hotel laboratory allowing guests to shape their own stay and actively change hospitality trends. ACME was commissioned to develop the MM:NT room design brand standards to create a new type of apartment hotel experience.

This involved questioning and testing the parameters of room sizes, daylight, and shared spaces to create a flexible and optimum city hotel stay experience. ACME then applied the MM:NT design principles to the first test retrofit site in Hackescher Markt, Berlin. By adapting an existing building ACME brings to life the first MM:NT prototype, ready for guest testing.

Project Details +

Project Details

LOCATION: Berlin, Germany

DATE: 2022-  2024

CLIENT: Adina/ TFE Hotels

STATUS: completed

SIZE:  300 sqm GIA

Credits +

Credits

ACME: Natalie Dubrovska, Friedrich Ludewig, Alina Vovkotrub

PeoplePlacesSpaces: Experience Design Strategy

BWM: Designers of room 00:02


The brief set by the MM:NT team articulated their desire to maximise space without sacrificing experience. This considered approach to design also needed to incorporate MM:NT’s brand values, which state that everything they set out to achieve is done with thoughtfulness and purpose for their guests and the planet. The design needed to reflect the brand’s belief in giving guests transparency and honesty, through an open house mindset, while connecting people that stay in their spaces through places, participation and purpose. The spaces needed to be flexible and respond to changes whenever they occur.

Pods with pod lounge 12sqm

Studio 19sqm

Apartment 24sqm

The concept is further built upon by four distinct design pillars, identified by MM:NT:

- Connected and Agile - MM:NT’s vision of the self-serve experience is to ensure the space connects guests through agile and seamless interaction between the digital and shared spaces.

-High performing and efficient - MM:NT envisioned the space to be built around functionality
and performance at its heart. An intuitive and efficient service model, which is supported by enhanced design touchpoints and layout.

-Honest and real - MM:NT’s desire was for considered design to be across all touchpoints. The concept for MM:NT is it will fit the building rather than the building fitting them. Bedrooms will be standardised to ensure consistency across its future locations, while the public spaces in each new space will have its own unique design, championing the existing architecture and use a variety of textures and materials.

-Warm and welcoming - MM:NT wanted to deliver modern and stylish spaces that feel like a
home from home. They wanted spaces that soften the digital backdrop and were warm and
welcoming. The foundation of a MM:NT hotel aesthetic is honest surfaces. A considered use of warm natural colours and tones with a mix of second life materials. A textured layered environment that feels quality, but isn’t costly to the planet.

The hotel interiors designed by ACME pay homage to our client's Australian heritage referencing the country's unique materiality, nature, art and scent.

00:01, the first bedroom at MM:NT Berlin Lab designed by ACME, focuses on a palette grounded in bamboo and sage greens, blended across walls, floors and kitchen storage. Offering guests a space to sleep, cook, eat and work is delivered through thoughtful design, flexible furniture and a compact kitchenette with unfussy appliances. A space that has everything guests would need and nothing they don’t.

00:04, just under 11sqm is MM:NT Berlin Lab’s smallest bedroom and one of three “Little” bedrooms in the hotel Lab. Designed by ACME, this small space has been smartly designed to feel the most luxurious with a large vanity space, alongside a recycled post-industrial plastics waste sink and rainfall shower.


Cocooned in sustainable wood, a Davide Groppi moon shaped light amplifies the sanctuary of the bed and offers guests the ultimate sleeping experience. ACME utilises Häfele’s versatile systems and smart lighting, which offers guests a day-to-night lighting system which has three modes: vitality (morning and wakeup), social (day) and relax (night). ACME has also used interior design and smart storage to give guests a space efficient, uncluttered and cosy room.

00:05, the second “Little” bedroom designed by ACME is a vibrant room lined with terracotta recycled glass tiles made by Eco Friendly Tiles. The room is dressed with 100 percent recycled polyester drapes, giving guests a sense of opulence on entry to their bedroom. The drapes also help keep the space uncluttered - a big part of MM:NT Berlin Lab’s approach - to ensure guests find a sanctuary within their private room.

Lockable storage space is also smartly built-in and uses Häfele locks to ensure maximum security. These can be opened and closed by guests digitally using the digital concierge web app. At 14 sqm, the space is thoughtfully designed by integrating a bathroom that does not intrude on guests' personal space. A rainfall shower is surrounded by 100 percent recycled tiles, which are in a return and reuse system, meaning they can be recycled again and again. Like all of the other bathrooms designed by ACME, the sink is also a recycled post-industrial plastics sink.

00:06, the fourth bedroom designed by ACME and the only “Big” room at MM:NT Berlin Lab. At 28 sqm, this room is the most spacious, offering guests the space to spread out and a chance to experience Berlin like a local with their own apartment (but better). Thoughtfully designed by ACME, sees a compact kitchenette complete with a Foresso worktop made using recycled wood chips, an open plan living and dining area accompanied by a birch veneer table and Snøhetta chairs made in collaboration with Nordic Comfort Products (NCP) using recycled fishing plastic.


Walls and flooring are lined with recycled sage green tiles, with the space transitioning from tile to bamboo, signifying designated areas for sleep and another to chill, host, cook and work from home. The bed is designed based on the closet-bed, a traditional nineteenth century Dutch bed design which creates a cosy sleeping space and enables it to be a sanctuary for good sleep. An extra fold-down Häfele wall bed makes it the perfect room for families or friends to share. Modular and flexible furniture throughout allows guests to evolve the space to work for them and shape their stay.

Friedrich Ludewig, Director of ACME said: “Our initial brief from the MM:NT team was incredibly strong and considered, with a clear vision of what they were looking to achieve. Calm, uncluttered spaces are essential to the MM:NT Berlin Lab experience. Modular construction and using natural and recycled materials were essential to creating this. Compact rooms with smart storage solutions and built-in features to make the most of the available sqm. Rich shared spaces we made possible by re-thinking typical apartment hotel layouts. For example, instead of each guest room having its own small table and chair, we created compact bedrooms and a shared lounge, a social space for coworking, and somewhere to enjoy a drink or bite to eat.
ACME is very excited about the process, and real-life testing with different designers.

The final product of MM:NT Berlin Lab is a realisation of this innovative design vision of what hospitality and hotel bedrooms can offer guests. We look forward to hearing the real-time feedback from the guests during the trial and learning how this beta brand can continue to evolve”.

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