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Amsterdam is a city full of promise, especially when creativity is concerned. An inspiriting reality that the Volkshotel has fully captured within its walls.. Once a space for a progressive Dutch newspaper, the building now houses an imaginative hotel and one of the largest workspaces for creative independents in the country. It is a fitting coincidence for José the director who gives a special attention to design and fresh ideas. Those two passions are what led her to create nine very special rooms with unusual universes. With its impressive terrace overlooking the city, the hotel continues to surprise us with a very wide offer of services : coffee, bar, music studios, dance hall. Nothing seems too beautiful for this place and its assumed bias, the design is never hesitant to play with the stylistic references of the past. We like the newspaper cuttings and introduction of metalwork, the concrete and glass, allowing us to take a bath with an impressive view over the city. One of the amazing room to experiment offers naked walls where you can project chosen images of the city while listening to the best DJs.
The Volkshotel : Wibautstraat 150, 1091 GR Amsterdam.
José, could you describe the spirit of The Volkshotel?
The Volkshotel is a low-key place with its own distinctive character, everybody is welcome here. It’s where people unite, meet, create and have fun.
Tell us about how people use the space you’ve created?
As keen travellers ourselves, it occured to us that most hotels don’t cater directly to non-guests or have specific things happening around that idea, meaning it was harder to meet locals in or around the hotel. Therefore we wanted to create a place were travellers and locals could meet, create and have fun together.
Who is your customer?
We are open for anybody who is open for anybody—it’s in our name too, The Volkshotel, roughly translates to ‘the hotel of the people’ in Dutch. So any openminded person that enjoys a creative non-traditional hotel with an avid spirit for meeting people and having fun is more than welcome here.
Do you have a room you like the most?
I’m a big fan of the corner rooms, there you have the best view over Amsterdam! You could spend hours sat in the window frame watching the life and people of the city.
What is your concept for the White Bike Room?
We have 9 specialized rooms, each designed by a different designer from Amsterdam or our own Broedplaats (studio’s in the back of the building). One of the 9 is the White Bike Room designed bij Thijs van Oostveen. Amsterdam is the city to bike around and in this room it’s all about the bike, you sleep in a bike and you get two bikes with the room. The white bikes were originally an idea from the 60’s, you could just grab a white bike from the street then leave it wherever for the next person who may need a bike. It’s a shame that the plan didn’t work out, because now there are too many bikes in the city.
Do you have any plans for another hotel… in Amsterdam or perhaps Europe?
There are no plans for another The Volkshotel. We have still a lot of challenges here in Amsterdam. We want to be the most awesome hotel in the world, something we are still working very hard on!
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