The Student Hotel, the dynamic young dutch start-up active in the hospitality sector since 2012, has opened its first building in Italy in the wonderful setting of Florence. After nestling in popular student destinations like Barcelona or Amsterdam, the eleventh hotel/campus created by McGregor is set right in the heart of Florence’s historic center. Designed in collaboration with Bologna-based practice Rizoma Architetture, The Student Hotel Florence Lavagnini opened in July 2018, the first of nine to be launched in Italy, with a total of 41 projects expected to open in several countries by 2021.
The first Italian structure of The Student Hotel brings a new concept of hotel accommodation in the country, a hybrid formula open both to students (as evidenced by the name), and to Italian and international tourists. The hotel becomes a meeting place for young university students, coming from all over the world, who can spend a maximum of two years in the structure, and the many tourists, professionals, businessman, researchers, modern globetrotters who want to spend in the Tuscan capital a period from two nights to twelve months.
The Student Hotel Firenze Lavagnini is located inside the former Palazzo del Sonno, opposite the Fortezza da Basso and only 10 minutes from the Santa Maria Novella station. The hotel has 390 rooms, 57% dedicated to students and 43% to other guests. The offer is aimed to a young, dynamic and cosmopolitan clientele, combining an attractive design with high-level receptive services (classrooms for conventions, auditoriums, restaurants and cafés, outdoor swimming pool, gym, indoor court, roof-top bar). The common spaces are the beating heart of the hotel, so that every guest, student or tourist, may feels like spending as little time as possible in his room, in order to live the meeting and social spaces, dedicated to study, sport, work, free time and culture.
The Student Hotel is able to offer to the city of Florence something that is quite extraordinary, that’s to say one of the most interesting Creativity Hub in Europe. TSH will be a hotbed of ideas and professions, thanks to the 600 square meters of Collab, a space dedicated to coworking and open to the public, available to anyone looking for a dynamic, informal workplace with every comfort. The real heart of Creativity Hub is the internal courtyard, a real “Italian piazza”, open to the city, where to organize cultural events, conferences and music.
The goal is to guarantee not only a room in the historic center of Florence, but to offer a unique experience: to live (or revive) the best spirit of the university age, to return to the informal and fun activities of that moment of life, with the possibility of meeting people from all over the world, being part of an engaging community that is generating a worldwide network of “made in TSH” guests. This spirit of freedom, creativity and meeting is what has guided the design of the interior design of the common areas on the ground floor, basement, internal courtyard and in particular on the sixth floor of the Florence hotel. The music room, the common kitchen, the swimming pool and the auditorium are just some of the spaces at guests’ disposal, designed with the aim of bringing together different cultures.
