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Amadria Park Grand Hotel – Opatija

Amadria Park Grand Hotel – Opatija

Opatija was Emperor Franz Joseph‘s winter retreat and, from 1889, the first seaside resort on what was then the Austrian Riviera. More than a century later, now part of Croatia, the town still turns its face to the Adriatic. On its seafront promenade, the Amadria Park Grand Hotel 4 Opatijska Cvijeta reopened in 2025 after a renovation that picks up that resort tradition and recasts it as a seafront retreat built around well-being. In its lobby, Colubi and Aleta, two Viccarbe pieces designed seventeen years apart, feel equally current in a lounge overlooking the bay.

A contemporary shell, a Mediterranean interior

Sangrad + AVP extended the existing building and turned it toward the Riviera. Outside, the facade is contemporary; inside, the language shifts to classic Mediterranean motifs. HBA (Hirsch Bedner Associates) carries the idea into the lobby: columns wrapped in nautical rope, encaustic tiles underfoot at the entrance, and tall windows that frame Kvarner Bay.

Exterior of the Amadria Park Grand Hotel Opatijska Cvijeta in Opatija at sunset, with balconies, a terrace and garden among historic villas
The contemporary façade by Sangrad + AVP, set among Opatija’s historic villas.Seafront view of the Amadria Park Grand Hotel 4 Opatijska Cvijeta in Opatija, Croatia, in the light of late afternoon. The extension by Sangrad + AVP rises with a contemporary façade of white volumes and balconies, above a terrace with sun loungers and a garden. Around it stand the villas of the old Austrian Riviera resort, with the wooded hills of Kvarner Bay behind.

A living room on the bay

In a seaside hotel, the lobby serves as the building’s living room, a threshold between arrival and the sea. HBA treats it as a sequence of open areas without partitions: oval glass screens filter the views, while the columns set the pace of the walk toward the windows.
Across these areas, Viccarbe’s two pieces offer two ways of occupying the space. Colubi, by RT Design, gathers around low wooden tables; its black steel tube frame and walnut armrests keep the sea view clear. Aleta, by Jaime Hayon, furnishes the tables beside the lobby bar. Its backrest, which recalls a shark’s fin, wraps around the sitter and draws conversation in toward the table.

Aleta chairs around marble tables (left) and Colubi lounge chairs by a window (right) in the lobby of Amadria Park Grand Hotel, Opatija
Aleta, by Jaime Hayon (left), and Colubi, by RT Design (right): two ways of occupying the lobby.

Colubi, one of the first pieces in Viccarbe’s collection, dates from 2000; Aleta, from 2017. Here, the restrained lines of one and the sculptural form of the other sit side by side without signaling two different eras, part of a single collection that is not measured by its date.
For this project, HBA specified close to fifty Viccarbe pieces, which were supplied and installed with Ugo Group, Viccarbe’s partner in Croatia.

Poject credits
Location · Opatija, Croatia
Architecture · Sangrad + AVP (Vedran Pedišić, Erick Velasco Farrera, Stipe Gašpar)
Interior design · HBA / Hirsch Bedner Associates, with Constantina Tsoutsikou
Partner · Ugo Group

Products

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Colubi

Colubi

by RT Design
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Aleta Lounge

Aleta Lounge

by Jaime Hayon

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