After a vast renovation, the Sofitel Rabat Jardin des Roses has reopened. The hotel was renovated by the designer Didier Gomez for all the interior decoration and the architect Karim Chakor for the façade and exterior. This Sofitel becomes the sixth Sofitel hotel in Morocco Rabat and is situated in the middle of an eight hectare (20-acre) Andalusian park, a rose garden and a eucalyptus forest, close to the Oudaïas, Rabat’s little known Kasbah.
Located in the heart of the Moroccan capital, one quarter hour from the airport and just a few
minutes from the Royal Palace, the Sofitel Rabat Jardin des Roses offers 229 rooms, including 37 suites, several of which have more than305sqm of floor space. There is also a spa measuring nearly 4,000sqm in size.
The interior décor draws its inspiration from three recurrent elements in the hotel – water,
roses and amber. At the entrance, the Sofitel Rabat Jardin des Roses opens onto a lobby where water is omnipresent in pools of black marble.
The furniture is quite eclectic, imparting a sense of life and modernity: black for the occidental sobriety and notion of luxury, golden for the Moroccan splendour.
On the floor, a moucharabieh (decorative lattice pattern) detail is outlined in the marble. In addition to the hotel’s boutiques, the lobby is home to the Le Café Lenôtre tearoom as well as the Fish restaurant located close to the pool, which enjoys direct access for the local Rabat clientele.
From the monochrome lobby, the colourful living spaces stand out in contrast. Red and black
dominate in the El Patio restaurant, which opens onto the park like a winter garden. The play of mirrors accentuates the restaurant’s luminosity and openness. On the floor, the Agadir marble offsets a red and black Moroccan carpet designed by Didier Gomez.
In this geometric setting inspired by the 1930-40s, one of the walls is decorated with a
traditional design reproducing a work of the customs officer Rousseau: a simple outline
drawn on a sheet that the Moroccan craft workers only took a day to sculpt the plaster on an entire wall.
The Moroccan restaurant Al Warda asserts warm colours in a highly matted ambience, with
reinterpreted Moroccan type lights and ceilings made according to Fassi art. The 1960s style
furniture gives it a chick and contemporary look.
The Amber Bar displays magnificent alabaster walls, gold painted moucharabiehs and a copper ceiling in tribute to Moroccan copper work.
The rooms’ decoration continues the project’s theme of moucharabiehs, which are still
presented as panels – black this time – that slide so you can see the gardens and the city
from your bathroom.
