Ibis-Novotel IKIA

As first airport hotel in Iran operated by Accor Group of France, Ibis – Novotel (IKIA) is developed on a land of 33,000 sqm opposite main passenger terminal of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport as a part of newly developed airport city positioned 35 km to southwest of Tehran.

Hotel is designed as a cluster of a 3-Star hotel with 196 rooms and a 4-Star hotel with 296 rooms making total area of 55’000 sqm, with common service areas, but separated guest and public areas. The public areas are connected through a corridor linking lobbies. Building has 12 levels:  2 basements for parking, service, and back of house areas; 2 levels for public areas, including lobbies, 3 restaurants, coffee shops, ballroom, meeting rooms, crew lounge, kids dedicated play room, and men & women health-centers; a mezzanine for service and admin areas; and 7 guest floors.

Guestrooms are designed as per standards of Accor Group of France, which is one of the largest international hospitality groups. At a first glance this design is the emergence of colors in Iran’s modern architecture; and the Designer, courageously going beyond the conventional use of neutral colors in 3 decades of Iranian contemporary architecture and challenging the eyes by bright green, purple, red, and yellow colors, has opened up a new episode in harmony and disharmony of colors in architecture, which she calls “Rise of the Color”.

Looking closer, the building is manifest of its creator. The designer, concerned about vitality and afraid of turning into a swamp brings shape, form, and light into a frenzied dance; and these elements are merged in their dance in a way that no sign of lethargy remains in the building. The floral motives, standing still for centuries on the Persian carpets and walls of the mosques, tend to move and ascend around a pole of light towards the sky. Philosophy of unity and diversity is artfully imaged in this building. Each part of the building has its exclusive design based on the intended function; yet all diverse areas are merged like knots of an Iranian carpet to form a body, a journey from complexity of mysterious Iranian architecture to transparency of the modern architecture.