Lifestyle instead of Cementby Jola Horschig | 10.06.2011

Kameha Grand Hotel

The Bonner Bogen is among the most attractive locations of the former federal capital. It’s located by the river Rhine, right in the middle of the Rheinaue wetlands with a gorgeous view of the backdrop of the Siebengebirge (“seven mountains”) and the Post tower. Transport connections are a dream, too: To the North, there’s the A 562, and within just a few minutes by car you can get to Cologne / Bonn airport. Until 1987, Portland cement was produced here, now this place is occupied by the Kameha Grand Hotel Bonn, a 5-star Life & Style Hotel.

Theme Suites

Architect Karl-Heinz Schommer focuses his design on the orientation towards the Rhine and divides the building into two hotel arms with entrée and event area in between. In order to allow for a view across the river from all rooms, the two arms get narrower and narrower towards the Rhine. Furthermore, the number o floors decreases from six towards the street down to three on the Rhine side. This results in hotel rooms and suites with generous and sheltered terraces. More than 254 rooms with a feeling-like-home atmosphere can be provided by the Kameha Grand. The special thing about the theme suites: The Fairplay-Suite comes with a  Wii gaming console, dartboard and table football, the  Beethoven-Suite with a Blüthner grand piano, the Diva-Suite with plush settee, and the Telekom-Suite features a video conferencing system. The whole interior has been designed by Marcel Wanders, who has entered into a pleasant dialog with warm sounding materials and the rather technical architecture.

The heart of the hotel is the Kameha Dome, a large multi-functional event hall. It opens up towards the Rhine and reminds of English 19th century glass halls and passages in terms of dimensions. The supporting structure consists of welded box beam profiles of steel. All beams have the same exterior dimensions, but their walls have various thicknesses, depending on the load they have to deal with.

Filligree Construction

The hall roof’s main supporting structure consists of beams lying parallel to the Rhine. The secondary beams are running at right angles to the main beams. They are curved in where they face the Rhine and eventually turn into façade poles.

The façade construction of the Hotel Kameha Grand is quite something, since it has been combined with water-filled systems for heating and cooling and is fed with water via a geothermal facility with an aquifer storage system. For using ground water, eight wells have been drilled, taking turns between summer and winter.  

The 5-star Life & Style hotel has already caused quite a stir within the real estate industry and has won the 2010 “MIPIM-Award“ along with the “International Property Award for Europe“. Turnover and champagne consumption are worth taking a look at, too: more than 16 million Euro and 3,225 bottles during the first year.