Inspired by Roman architectural elements such as Baroque buildings, ceilings of painted Trompe l’oeil arches, heavenly vaults, and chambers populated with ascendant saints, martyrs, and putti, Italy’s Palazzo Capponi is set for a major transformation.
While designing the hotel conversion of Palazzo Capponi on the Via di Ripetta, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) began by redesigning the ceilings.
Searching for a property in Rome for a new hotel, Alfredo Romeo, founder of Romeo Hotels, came upon the historic Palazzo Capponi.
While the core of the building dates from the 16th century, it also includes components from different historical periods. Most recently, two wings were added by the Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority (INAIL) administration in the 1950s. INAIL remodeled much of the palazzo’s remaining interiors in its conversion to administrative offices, making significant changes to the palazzo and its art.
A series of Palazzo Capponi’s 17th-century frescoes were also displaced. Intricately painted on canvas, the works were removed from their original location, placed in wall frames, and repainted—completely masking the original frescoes. Long restoration gradually uncovered and revealed the delicate works and four centuries after their creation, hotel guests can admire them again.
While the palazzo’s exterior follows a Renaissance theme, the composite layout of its interiors does not. From the reception area, guests pass into the former courtyard, now vaulted with a retractable glass roof. This newly enclosed lobby is a distribution point from which the restored grand stairways lead to guest rooms.
The materials used in the guest rooms and suites include marble, complemented by ebony, cedar, or chestnut woods, and Krion, engineered by Porcelanosa. Some suites on the palazzo’s piano nobile feature restored 17th-century frescoes, while those on higher floors offer private terraces with panoramic city views.
In the lobby, delicate brass circuli vaults highlight the lava stone and ebony floors, while the hotel’s spa interiors are crafted using Sicilian rock salt, tadelakt—an ancient Moroccan lime-based wall treatment—cedar, and ash.
To enable the highest standards of guest accommodation in the 21st century, a second skin has been meticulously crafted for each of the hotel’s interiors, creating a thin cavity between the existing structure and the hotel’s interior walls to house the services for each room.
