Propeller Island Hotel, Berlin

By Olivia Martin – April 14, 2012

In 1997, musician Lars Storschen started renting out rooms in his house to supplement his income. Bored with the idea of a traditional guest room, Storschen created different themes for each of the four rooms. Inspired by Jules Vernes’ science fiction novel, Propeller Island, Storschen’s guestrooms-cum art installations, like Symbols (A room filled with 300 symbols) became an extension of his career as an artist. Soon after, the rooms became popular and Storschen began toying with the idea of expanding Propeller Island into a proper hotel. When the pension hotel in his building became available, Storschen bought it and spent the next five years expanding. Now, with three floors and 27 rooms, Propeller Island is part art gallery and part hotel. It’s impractical and slightly gimmicky, but I love Storschen’s madcap approach and imaginative décor. Click through the slideshow to view my favorite rooms.

Propeller Island

Albrecht Achilles Str. 58

For a Bedknobs and Broomsticks experience: the slate floors are slanted to make it seem as though the bed is hovering above the ground.

10709 Berlin

One of the original Propeller Island rooms, the Mirror Room is designed to make you feel as though you are inside a kaleidoscope. The room comes with an unusual tagline, "Warning: very sexy."

+49-(0)30-891 90 16

This long, narrow room is modeled after, what else? A mineshaft. Each bed is on a terrace and the walls are tilted for that homey, claustrophobic feeling.

www.propeller-island.de

Although the furniture’s orientation may set your sense of direction spinning, the beds and chairs are stowed underneath the floorboards.

Rooms from $104

With an in-room bathroom constructed out of old windows, occupants are meant to feel like they are in a writer’s enclave. The century-old skylight and walls are remnants from the pension hotel.

10709 Berlin, GerAlbrecht Achilles Str. 5810709 Berlin, Germany

Built out of the original rafters of the hotel, Larchenson modeled this room after a barn. Lounge on potato sacks filled with foam rubber and climb up the hidden ladder to your bed.

This minimal space conveniently doubles as a photographer’s studio with in suite backdrops and lighting boxes. Obviously, the bed is located under the floor beneath a garage gate.

Although you can’t be over six feet tall to stay in this room, it is the most traditionally appealing. The bed and desk are built on top of a rustic "table," but otherwise everything is right side up and won’t trigger a panic attack.

For more information about the hotel, visit

propeller-island.de.

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