Minimal chic hospitality

Located close to the old town centre of Teramo and its riverside park on Via Alcide De Gasperi, a high traffic thoroughfare, Hotel Sporting is centrally positioned within the province, midway between the Adriatic coast and the Apennine mountains. Originally built in the 1970s, the hotel recently underwent a renovation project led by architect Alberto Troncarelli together with Daniele Tittarelli (co-architect and artistic and technical director) and Maurizio Basile (structural engineer for the fire escape stairway). The project involved completely redesigning the external image and internal hospitality facilities of the old hotel, which had become obsolete and dilapidated, to create a luxurious four-star establishment on the outskirts of the city of Teramo. The redesign, completed in 2010, involved remediating the external envelope, creating a new colour scheme, replacing the door and windows, renovating the interiors and adapting the building to current safety regulations. For this purpose, an external stairway was constructed alongside the building. Spiralling around the panoramic lift tower, it is anchored to the floors of the building by means of a loadbearing structure consisting of pillars and walkways with iron railings, curtain glass and steel handrails. The iron beams were left exposed as part of a clear industrial architecture vision, which also inspired the finely decorated cantilever roof projecting out from the hotel foyer. The two original colours used for the exteriors – a paler pink for the stringcourses and a darker pink for the facades – were replaced by two tones of gray, a lighter tone for the background and a darker shade for the horizontal bands that mark the floors. The colours used on the exteriors are echoed in the interiors through the use of various materials. On the stairways and distribution corridors, the surfaces are covered for acoustic purposes with carpet with a dove grey edge on which is indicated the room number, illuminated by a spotlight located on the ceiling above. The floors in the guest rooms and suites consist of grey wood planks, whereas the bathrooms are tiled with porcelain (Absolute collection from Piemmegres). In response to a specific request from the architect for the purpose of creating textured surfaces with a high visual impact, the Grey coloured Absolute tiles were cut to a height of 15 cm and installed in such a way as to leave a dark coloured 1 cm grout joint.
Valentino collection tiles produced by the company Piemme (following an agreement with the world-famous fashion designer dating from 1977) in colours Diamond grey and black and a square 60×60 cm size were installed in the large public spaces, including the stylish conference rooms equipped with the most modern technologies.
All the hotel interiors demonstrate great attention to minimal chic design and sophisticated modern furnishings, enhanced by the display of contemporary works and colour choices focusing on white and pale grey.
The top floor, run by a different management to the hotel and therefore accessible via the external stairway and lift, is home to a panoramic restaurant, a sort of roof garden offering views over the city.