Philippe Starck’s latest hotel project is so ‘Starck,’ it redefines itself

Maison Heler has been completely designed by Philippe Starck, so of course it is topped with 19th-century mansion that sets new architectural standards in hotel design…

Perched atop a sleek monolith of steel and glass, a 19th-century Lorrain-style house appears to float above the city of Metz – a vision so surreal it could only belong to Philippe Starck. This is Maison Heler, a poetic contradiction and an architectural reverie, standing proudly in the French Amphithéâtre district, a stone’s throw from the Centre Pompidou-Metz.

Here, Starck’s world-building prowess is on full display, his signature fusion of dreamlike narrative and exacting modernity shaping a landmark that defies gravity, convention and time.

At first glance, the hotel’s nine-storey base is an exercise in contemporary restraint – an austere, minimalist volume that serves as an elegant pedestal. Above it, the unexpected: an archetypal bourgeois residence, seemingly plucked from another century and suspended in the air like a fragment of memory. It’s a home untethered, uprooted yet strangely resolute – a metaphor, perhaps, for the ephemeral nature of belonging.

Maison Heler shelters 104 rooms and suites, alongside two restaurants, two bars and event spaces, each infused with Starck’s characteristic wit and whimsy. The concept is underpinned by the fictional figure of Manfred Heler, a dreamer and inventor whose imagined life lends a rich narrative texture to the space.

Upon entering, the lobby is a design study in tension: immaculate ceramics juxtaposed with shadowy furnishings, polished surfaces reflecting shifting light. The main restaurant, La Cuisine de Rose, pays homage to Manfred’s mythical love, Rose, its interiors steeped in romantic symbolism. Here, pink accents soften the stark minimalism, while surrealist details – a ceiling adorned with a giant origami airplane, monochrome portraits with unexpected flourishes—hint at a love story just beyond reach.

The adjacent dining space, La Maison de Manfred, unfolds like a tableau vivant. Starck’s mastery of material storytelling is palpable – smooth leather, rugged wood and verdant embossed columns envelop diners in a sensorial embrace, while Ara Starck’s stained-glass windows bathe the room in an ever-shifting interplay of colour and light. Each of the 19 panels tells a silent, spectral tale, culminating in a monumental centrepiece that transforms the hall into a canvas of luminous reverie.

Maison Heler also serves as a living gallery, where absurdity and elegance dance in exquisite balance. Scattered throughout are objets trouvés inspired by Jacques Carelman’s Catalogue d’Objets Introuvables – a 1969 homage to the beauty of invention and folly. Guests may encounter a crystal hammer, an inverted rocking chair, or a plaster anvil – each an ode to Manfred’s fantastical world of impossible design. It is a masterpiece of poetic absurdity – a celebration of human ingenuity, whether inspired or utterly impractical.

The guestrooms echo this ethos, enveloping visitors in an atmosphere of quiet refinement. Starck describes them as possessing an ‘almost Spartan spirit, stripped of superficiality,’ where each material asserts its essence. Crisp white cotton, raw concrete, and veined marble form a palette of restrained elegance, while sliding mirrors capture fleeting moments of daylight, shifting the space from dawn to dusk. Soft carpets and leather armchairs invite moments of repose, their tactile luxury offsetting the cool precision of the architecture. And always, Starck’s signature touch: hidden surprises – old coins tucked into nooks, engraved quotes waiting to be discovered, whispers of Manfred’s spectral presence.

A testament to Starck’s singular vision, Maison Heler is an architectural haiku, a surrealist fable, a home unmoored and yet impossibly grounded. In its delicate balance of past and future, of reverie and reality, it reminds us that the most compelling design is not just seen – it is felt, experienced, and ultimately, remembered.

> Since you are here, why not read the latest on the space race to open the first zero-gravity hotel?

Main image credit: Image credit: STARCK / Maison Heler / Julius Hirtzberger