September 2, 2026 | TRAVEL
a STOCKHOLM LANDMARK THROUGH
a BARCELONA LENS
words Onur Basturk
photos Ben Anders
We spoke at length with Aaron Clarke and Marta Tuneu, founders of Barcelona-based ADC & Tuneu, about hospitality design and their redesign of Sheraton Stockholm’s public spaces.
ADC & Tuneu discuss how they reshaped the public spaces of the 1971 Sheraton Stockholm while preserving the building’s architectural character — from the lobby and bars to the co-working areas and Mr. Bronck restaurant. They also reflect on the research behind the project and the references that informed its design.
PRESERVING WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL
Hospitality design is increasingly expected to create spaces that appeal to locals as much as hotel guests. Has this changed the way you think about what a hotel should be?
Absolutely. I think the role of a hotel has evolved enormously. Public spaces, and particularly lobbies, are no longer simply places to pass through on your way to your room — they have become social spaces in their own right. With Sheraton Stockholm, for example, when renovating the public spaces we thought about how they could feel more inviting and relevant to both guests and the wider city. We wanted to create spaces that people would genuinely want to spend time in.
Sheraton Stockholm opened in 1971 and carries more than five decades of history. When you first walked into the building, what did you feel needed to be preserved, and what needed to change?
It’s an older building that has seen a great deal of use over the years, and every hotel eventually requires maintenance. But for us, that does not mean changing the soul of the building. It means improving it, adapting it and designing it to meet today’s needs while preserving what makes it special.
We felt it was a wonderful space, and we wanted the original structure to remain visible and shine through the new design. We exposed structural elements such as the huge columns, making the double-height volume a remarkable feature and allowing you to understand the scale and dimensions of the building as soon as you enter. The way the light enters and moves through the interior is magnificent, and we wanted to preserve that quality as much as possible.
Appreciating the scale and proportions was key to our approach to Sheraton Stockholm. We wanted to bring some fun, pattern and colour into what could otherwise feel like a rigid building. Swedish design has such a strong identity, and we wanted to emphasise that through vibrant colours and a playful yet elegant approach, bringing back some of the glamour and spirit of the 1970s.
WHEN WORKING IN SWEDEN, ASPLUND IS AN INEVITABLE REFERENCE
Rather than simply referencing Scandinavian design, you looked to figures such as Gunnar Asplund and elements of Swedish visual culture, from Falu red to Svenskt Tenn. How did you bring these references into the interiors without falling into nostalgia?
MARTA: I studied architecture for more than six years, and I’ve always been fascinated by architectural history. I find an enormous amount of inspiration in looking backwards — at buildings, interiors and projects from different periods — not simply as historical references, but as a way of understanding how ideas evolve. There is so much intelligence and invention embedded in the classics, particularly in the way they deal with proportion, scale, light and material. We are quite romantic in that sense; we believe there is great value in understanding what came before us.
When working in Sweden, Asplund is an inevitable reference. His architecture has an extraordinary sensitivity to proportion, materiality and light, and there is something very human about the way he creates atmosphere within a space. These qualities were particularly relevant to how we approached Sheraton Stockholm.
Fashion is also deeply embedded in the DNA of our studio. We don’t see the relationship between fashion and interiors as a superficial one; both are fundamentally about creating an atmosphere, a sense of identity and a way of inhabiting the world.
Svenskt Tenn is a particularly strong reference for us in this project. The confidence with which it combines colour, pattern and scale is something we find incredibly inspiring. We are also looking carefully at the fashion scene in Northern Europe, particularly street style. Beyond the established fashion capitals of Paris, Milan, New York and London, there is a new fashion language emerging in the north that we find incredibly exciting. There is something very instinctive about the way colour, texture and pattern are combined — often bringing together pieces that, on paper, shouldn’t necessarily work, yet somehow create a natural and effortless whole.
We wanted to translate that freedom and confidence into the interiors, allowing colour and pattern to be playful and unexpected while maintaining elegance, balance and a strong sense of proportion.
WE ARE IN LOVE WITH THE 1970s
There is a distinct 1970s character to the project, yet it never feels like a recreation of the period. How did you balance those historical references with a contemporary approach?
We are in love with the 1970s, so you will see a lot of that period throughout the project. The red sofas, the carpet designs and some of the colour combinations all have a strong connection to that era.
We looked carefully at the archives of suppliers we regularly work with and used those references as a starting point. We then reinterpreted and redesigned them to suit the project, paying particular attention to proportion, comfort, durability and current compliance requirements. The sofas, for example, are completely bespoke. We made them larger and adapted their proportions to the scale of the spaces and to the way a contemporary hotel needs to function today.
For us, the idea is to capture the spirit of the 1970s rather than reproduce its aesthetics literally. We wanted the project to have that sense of glamour, colour and optimism associated with the period, but expressed through a contemporary lens.
WE LIKE TO GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL SOURCES
You wanted to reconnect Sheraton with the life of Stockholm. How can design help build that relationship with a city?
I think the best way to connect a building with its city is to really understand the place before starting to design. This is something we are very passionate about at ADC & Tuneu. We don’t believe that inspiration should come only from Pinterest, Instagram or the latest digital tools. Of course, they are useful, but they can also make everything feel very similar. We like to go back to the original sources: buying books, looking through archives, visiting museums, walking through the streets, observing how people live and discovering the details that you would never find online.
For us, this research is what allows a project to feel genuinely connected to its location. You need to spend time in a city, understand its culture and its people, and really look at what is around you. That is where you find the references that make a project feel like it belongs to that particular place, rather than simply being placed there.
Mr. Bronck has a noticeably quieter, more restrained design language than the lobby. Why was it important for the restaurant to have an atmosphere of its own?
Mr. Bronck is different. It has its own entrance and serves a different purpose, which called for a more intimate atmosphere. We therefore made the colour palette softer and less saturated, creating something warmer, cosier and more distinctive. We also had to consider that some people will come to Mr. Bronck without ever staying at the hotel. For us, it was therefore important that the restaurant could have its own identity while still belonging to the same family.
BARCELONA SENSIBILITY
The project brings together Stockholm’s design heritage and influences from Barcelona. Where do you see the Barcelona side of ADC & Tuneu most clearly?
The Barcelona side of ADC & Tuneu is more about our way of looking at things than about bringing obvious Spanish references into the project. We are a Barcelona-based studio, and the city is part of our DNA. Barcelona has an incredible architectural heritage, from Romanesque and Gothic architecture to Modernism and more contemporary work.
I think you can see that Barcelona sensibility in the way we approached the project — the importance we place on proportion and architectural elements, but also in our love of colour, pattern, craftsmanship and a certain sense of warmth. We like spaces that feel elegant but never too serious, and that have a sense of life and personality.
There is also something very Mediterranean in our approach to hospitality. We like interiors to feel welcoming, comfortable and lived-in, rather than overly perfect. At the same time, we wanted to be very respectful of Stockholm and Swedish design, so we were never trying to bring Barcelona to Stockholm. It was more about allowing our own perspective to meet the character of the city.
I think the most interesting projects happen when you bring your own identity to a place without imposing it upon its character. For us, Stockholm was always going to be Stockholm — but seen through our Barcelona eyes.
As interiors are increasingly experienced through images first, has hospitality design become too focused on how a space looks rather than how it feels?
Images are an important part of hospitality design now, and of course we want our projects to photograph well. But I don’t think that should be a starting point. When a space is designed only around how it will look in an image, it can easily lose its authenticity. For us, it is about creating a complete experience rather than simply creating a beautiful image.
MARTA LEADS THE CREATIVE, AARON MAKES IT WORK
Aaron, your time at Soho House gave you an understanding of both design and operations. What from that experience still shapes the way you approach hotels today?
Working on projects where design, food and beverage, service and operations all had to come together taught me to look at a hotel from many different perspectives. A beautiful space is not successful if it doesn’t function properly, if it doesn’t work for the staff, or if the guest experience doesn’t feel natural.
That experience still influences the way we work at ADC & Tuneu today. I look at things very differently from Marta. Marta tends to focus more on the creative direction and the architectural and aesthetic side, while I am constantly thinking about how everything is going to function in reality — how people move through the space, how the staff use it, what happens behind the scenes and how the business operates.
I think that combination is very valuable for us. We always want the design to be beautiful and have a strong identity, but it also has to work.
You come from quite different creative backgrounds. When you begin a project together, where do your perspectives tend to diverge?
MARTA: Aaron is English, I am Spanish — you can imagine…
We always make it work. I lead the creative direction, and Aaron makes it happen. It’s a very natural balance between us — I tend to follow my instinct and push the creative side, while Aaron brings structure and finds a way to make the ideas work in reality. As we say in Catalan, Aaron is the “seny” and I am the “rauxa”. He brings rationality and structure, while I bring instinct and spontaneity. I think that balance is actually very important to the way we work together.
