Nhow Hotel Milan

NH Hotels has an uncanny ability to create luxury hotels in the most unlikeliest of surroundings. The old Fiat factory in Torino with its rooftop test track, an ancient cliff top monastery in Amalfi and even a former railway station in Rome.

Switch over to Milan and I discover another one; the Nhow (pronounced Now) right in the centre of Zona Tortona, Milan’s famous creative and design district. Tortona’s former industrial past, principally the abandoned factories from the 60s energy crisis, provided plenty of large empty factory spaces, a perfect magnet for creative types to sprinkle their magic dust. What were empty shells are now showrooms and event space. The factory workers’ dwellings now trendy ateliers’ workshops.

In the centre of all this creativity lies the Nhow Hotel, itself almost an homage to art and design. All the ingredients are here; a former GEC factory (sound familiar?) with space aplenty to display art and provide an ever changing creative landscape.

And best of all, it works perfectly.

Clearly I knew this was going to be a hotel stay with a difference when I spot the reception desk as I check in. Clad entirely in gold laminate.Having said that, the entire lobby is breathtaking. Orange chandeliers, pod seats and transparent red walls with splashes of purple and white furniture dotted about.

As I walk to the elevator, the concrete floor gives way to a glass window on the building’s foundations. Another homage to industrial history perhaps but not quite as intoxicating as ancient Roman remains.

Upstairs, my spacious room is a study in chic trendy loft space design. Minimalist fixtures in the shape of a simple net curtain covering the wardrobe, Philippe Starckesque white rounded table and chairs and a wooden floor. The bathroom has a equally trendy bath and shower with high end toiletries and not a trace of marble anywhere. This is headline news; an Italian bathroom with no marble, whatever next!

That said, this room is a very comfortable space. And there are another 245 more, all different in some way or other.

Downstairs in the restaurant the trendy theme continues. More netting, more Philippe Starckesque furniture, and of course, some excellent Milanese food.

The Nhow hotel has art, design, fashion and creativity oozing from every pore, and come the annual Milan Design Week, I can only imagine what ideas get bounced around in here.