Georges Rouzeau - 2009-08-25

 

Philippe Starck has known the Trigano family (Club Med) since the 1980s. Like the Triganos, the designer dreamt of devising a new concept for the hotel industry; something that would be both democratic and chic.

In 2001, Serge Trigano met Cyril Aouizerate, a philosopher and property developer who founded Urbantech, a company always on the lookout for ‘sites in dilapidated urban areas.’

 

Cyril and Serge joined together to look for an appropriate piece of property in Paris, preferably on the east side, far from the city’s traditional hotel districts. They found an old, graffiti-covered garage at 109, Rue de Bagnolet (20th arrondissement) in the St. Blaise quarter. By happy coincidence, Philippe Starck had also been dreaming of this sort of place for the past thirty years, and the small group, soon joined by architect Roland Castro, decided to set up shop together. The garage was to become the Mama Shelter, a ‘modern kibbutz’ (cf. Philippe Starck), where one can ‘live all day long’ (cf. Serge Trigano).

 

Named in honour of the Rolling Stones song ‘Gimme Shelter,’ the hotel’s spirit is apparent as soon as you enter the lobby, with its concrete walls and graffiti on the ceiling. On the ground floor you’ll find two bars, wifi, Ikea sofas, a 12-metre long communal table fitted with screens, a table football game specially built for 8 players, a small concert stage and a restaurant run by Michelin-starred chef Alain Senderens (Paris’s posh Lucas Carton restaurant) where the classics of French cuisine are reinvented and playfully presented.

 

 

Named in honour of the Rolling Stones song ‘Gimme Shelter,’ the hotel’s spirit is apparent as soon as you enter the lobby, with its concrete walls and graffiti on the ceiling. On the ground floor you’ll find two bars, wifi, Ikea sofas, a 12-metre long communal table fitted with screens, a table football game specially built for 8 players, a small concert stage and a restaurant run by Michelin-starred chef Alain Senderens (Paris’s posh Lucas Carton restaurant) where the classics of French cuisine are reinvented and playfully presented.

 

Mama Shelter is above all an affordable designer hotel, as democratic and sexy as the most fashionable jeans. There are 7 floors holding 172 rooms (17 to 35 m2) divided into 5 categories and colours at € 79 to € 299 a night. On the top floor, the largest of the suites has its own terrace with a view of Paris which, when seen from that angle, looks just like Brooklyn (according to Cyril Aouizerate, that is)! Each room has a mini-kitchenette with a microwave which can be used to heat up the self-serve dishes found in refrigerated armoires on the ground floor. Mama Shelter does not provide room service.

 

Eat, sleep, play… Everything is possible at Mama Shelter and even beyond, since the hotel has electric scooters and compact motorcars for hire.

 

 

 

109 Rue de Bagnolet

75020 Paris