When discussing one of his latest projects, Hôtel Les Haras, Patrick Jouin is keen to point out that hospital and hotel have the same etymological origin—from the Latin hospitalis. They are two worlds the Interior Design Hall of Fame member knows well. His mother, a retired nurse, began her career treating tuberculosis patients. Meanwhile, with his co-founder, architect Sanjit Manku, he has worked on numerous high-profile hospitality projects—among them, La Mamounia in Marrakech, Blue by Alain Ducasse in Bangkok, and, in his native France, Fontevraud L’Hôtel, which is located in the Loire Valley, on the grounds of an abbey where Richard the Lionheart is buried. A few hundred miles east, Hôtel Les Haras in Strasbourg has noble origins, too. Its initial part, opened in 2013, occupies the former royal stables conceived by Louis XIV and dates to the mid-1700’s. The stables and another building on the equine complex were converted into a 55-room hotel and Brasserie les Haras by Jouin Manku. The firm has returned for the hotel’s 30,000-square-foot extension, which incorporates a spa, breakfast and meeting rooms, and 60 more guest rooms. They’re inside in a separate 19th-century building that housed a clinic operated by Les Diaconesses, an order of Protestant women who provided pastoral care— and still do. (Hence, Jouin’s hotel-hospital analogy.) “There’s 138
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Previous spread: An addition to Hôtel Les Haras in Strasbourg, France, by Jouin Manku features a subgrade spa, its 60-foot pool flanked by wall of local Grès des Vosges limestone and a trio of Corian volumes housing an experiential shower, a hammam, and a sauna. Top: An oak staircase lit by LEDs connects the spa to the ground level. Bottom: In the breakfast room, a plaster bas-relief by Pierre-Louis Dietschy depicts medicinal plants. Opposite top: Japanese ryokans inspired the oak-framed grids of squares leading toward the meeting rooms and custom reception desk. Opposite bottom, from left: The addition connects to the existing part of Hôtel Les Haras, also by Jouin Manku, via an underground tunnel of limestone, plaster, and LEDs. Aspen surrounds and forms seating in the sauna.