Agape - Destinations

The neighborhood of Charlottenburg in Berlin’s western

confine is an ornate and historic district defined by its leafy

boulevards and gingerbread house-like apartment buildings.

Long known as a destination for boutique shopping,

high-end restaurants and international cafes, tourists and

Berliners alike flock to the area to soak up some of the city’s

old-world charm.

The Wilmina Hotel, opened in 2022, fits perfectly

into this vibrant cosmopolitan setting. With its 44 rooms, it

offers a secluded urban retreat surrounded by lush gardens.

Berlin-based Gruntuch Ernst Architects is the studio

behind this project, which transformed a courthouse and

former women’s prison into a boutique hotel. Founded

by Almut Grüntuch-Ernst and Armand Grüntuch, the

office handles projects on a variety of scales, from urban

planning to the construction of buildings, often awarded

for their high quality, with forays into the art world, as was

the case with the German contribution to the 2006 Venice

Architecture Biennale.

“We conceive the continuity and transformative

power of urban spaces as a requirement for a future-proof

city, where what already exists is seen as a resource, exactly

the way it happened with the Wilmina”: explains architect

Grüntuch-Ernst, who is also involved in Munich’s urban

planning and a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts,

among other things.

With no two rooms exactly alike, the designers at

Grüntuch Ernst created a blend of modern and historical

design elements using light colors, soft textures and warm,

high-quality materials. Naturally, they chose Agape products

for the spa-like bathrooms, mixing and matching the clean

lines of the Ottocento bathtub and washbasin, Evo E2

countertop, Memory taps and Novecento XL washbasin

throughout the various rooms.

Evo-E2 countertop/washbasin, Memory taps

Piano/lavabo Evo E2, rubinetto Memory