Inside Marcel Wanders’ Budapest Masterpiece

Perched on the Buda side of the Danube, just steps away from the Castle District’s UNESCO-listed treasures, Kimpton BEM Budapest emerges as the city’s newest design jewel — a hotel where Hungarian folklore, poetic maximalism, and contemporary luxury collide. Imagined by Dutch visionary Marcel Wanders, the property brings an entirely new creative language to Budapest’s hospitality landscape: bold, mythic, and irresistibly theatrical. Built inside a restored 19th-century mansion, the hotel takes its name fromGeneral Józef Bem, the Polish hero who fought alongside Hungarians during the 1848 War of Independence. Today, his legacy becomes the prologue to a new narrative — one told through 127 rooms, eight suites, and three inventive restaurants, each crafted as a chapter in a larger cultural story.

Inside Marcel Wanders’ Budapest Masterpiece

Perched on the Buda side of the Danube, just steps away from the Castle District’s UNESCO-listed treasures, Kimpton BEM Budapest emerges as the city’s newest design jewel — a hotel where Hungarian folklore, poetic maximalism, and contemporary luxury collide. Imagined by Dutch visionary Marcel Wanders, the property brings an entirely new creative language to Budapest’s hospitality landscape: bold, mythic, and irresistibly theatrical. Built inside a restored 19th-century mansion, the hotel takes its name fromGeneral Józef Bem, the Polish hero who fought alongside Hungarians during the 1848 War of Independence. Today, his legacy becomes the prologue to a new narrative — one told through 127 rooms, eight suites, and three inventive restaurants, each crafted as a chapter in a larger cultural story.

  • A Design Rooted in Folklore and Storytelling

    For Wanders, this project was never merely architectural — it was an immersion into Hungary’s cultural soul. He and his team immersed themselves in local libraries, historical archives, and exchanges with Hungarian artisans, searching for symbols, myths, and patterns that could ground the hotel in an authentic narrative. The result is an interior soaked in legend and imagination: the Golden Stag, a guardian figure of Hungarian mythology, appears as a recurring emblem; floral motifs such as poppies and tulips unfurl across surfaces in an echo of traditional craftsmanship; and in the Turul Room, the mythical bird of Magyar lore stretches its wings across the walls, anchoring contemporary design in centuries-old storytelling. “We wanted guests to wake upin Hungary, inBudapest, and nowhere else,” Wanders explains. Every detail, from the sculpted wooden doors crafted by local artisans to the meticulously worked flooring, was conceived to resonate with a sense of place. “An interior doesn’t travel,” he adds. “A chair can. But a hotel must belong to its land.”

  • An Expression of Maximalist Identity

    Across the hotel, Wanders’ vision unfolds through a sequence of spectacular design moments that transform the space into an immersive experience. The reception counter, shaped by hand in ceramic and adorned with intricate green and violet mosaics, acts as a sculptural centerpiece, merging folk aesthetics with modern elegance. In the Agos restaurant, an extravagant chandelier composed of clustered lamps descends from the ceiling like a theatrical installation, revisiting grandeur with eclectic complexity. Throughout the building, delicate Art Deco references whisper back to the mansion’s early-20th-century history, blending harmoniously with Wanders’ fantastical, dreamlike elements. Each guestroom expresses its own identity through deep color palettes, bold textures, and atmospheric lighting — rooms designed not to be forgotten, but to be remembered like scenes from a vivid dream. The penthouse suite takes that vision even further, imagining a cosmic interior that reaches for the stars, suspended in a celestial, otherworldly light.

  • A Design Rooted in Folklore and Storytelling

    For Wanders, this project was never merely architectural — it was an immersion into Hungary’s cultural soul. He and his team immersed themselves in local libraries, historical archives, and exchanges with Hungarian artisans, searching for symbols, myths, and patterns that could ground the hotel in an authentic narrative. The result is an interior soaked in legend and imagination: the Golden Stag, a guardian figure of Hungarian mythology, appears as a recurring emblem; floral motifs such as poppies and tulips unfurl across surfaces in an echo of traditional craftsmanship; and in the Turul Room, the mythical bird of Magyar lore stretches its wings across the walls, anchoring contemporary design in centuries-old storytelling. “We wanted guests to wake upin Hungary, inBudapest, and nowhere else,” Wanders explains. Every detail, from the sculpted wooden doors crafted by local artisans to the meticulously worked flooring, was conceived to resonate with a sense of place. “An interior doesn’t travel,” he adds. “A chair can. But a hotel must belong to its land.”

  • An Expression of Maximalist Identity

    Across the hotel, Wanders’ vision unfolds through a sequence of spectacular design moments that transform the space into an immersive experience. The reception counter, shaped by hand in ceramic and adorned with intricate green and violet mosaics, acts as a sculptural centerpiece, merging folk aesthetics with modern elegance. In the Agos restaurant, an extravagant chandelier composed of clustered lamps descends from the ceiling like a theatrical installation, revisiting grandeur with eclectic complexity. Throughout the building, delicate Art Deco references whisper back to the mansion’s early-20th-century history, blending harmoniously with Wanders’ fantastical, dreamlike elements. Each guestroom expresses its own identity through deep color palettes, bold textures, and atmospheric lighting — rooms designed not to be forgotten, but to be remembered like scenes from a vivid dream. The penthouse suite takes that vision even further, imagining a cosmic interior that reaches for the stars, suspended in a celestial, otherworldly light.

  • A Hotel With Personality

    Bold, layered, and unapologetically expressive, Kimpton BEM Budapest embraces individuality and refuses neutrality. “The purpose of an interior is not that everyone likes it,” Wanders says. “We seek open minds.” In this spirit, the hotel positions itself as a landmark of Budapest’s evolving creative landscape — a place where Hungarian folklore meets maximalist artistry, and where design is not just visual but emotional. A destination with imagination at its core, it invites travelers to enter a world where every corridor tells a story, every detail carries intention, and every stay becomes a journey into the poetic and unexpected.

  • A Hotel With Personality

    Bold, layered, and unapologetically expressive, Kimpton BEM Budapest embraces individuality and refuses neutrality. “The purpose of an interior is not that everyone likes it,” Wanders says. “We seek open minds.” In this spirit, the hotel positions itself as a landmark of Budapest’s evolving creative landscape — a place where Hungarian folklore meets maximalist artistry, and where design is not just visual but emotional. A destination with imagination at its core, it invites travelers to enter a world where every corridor tells a story, every detail carries intention, and every stay becomes a journey into the poetic and unexpected.