25hours Hotel The Circle – Cologne, Germany
1960s architecture, retro-futurist interiors and cathedral views from one of Cologne’s most playful design hotels.
Why DNA Hotels Loves It
● A former 1960s office building in Cologne’s Gerling Quarter transformed into a full-blown retro-futurist hotel by O&O Baukunst and Studio Aisslinger.
● The design runs with the building’s circular geometry rather than fighting it, mixing space-age references, bold colour and mid-century forms with 25hours’ characteristic humour.
● NENI and Monkey Bar occupy the upper floors, turning Cologne Cathedral and the city skyline into part of the experience.
Back to the Future
Some mid-century buildings seem to have been waiting patiently for the future they once imagined. 25hours Hotel The Circle is one of them. Set in Cologne’s former Gerling insurance complex, the hotel occupies a striking circular 1960s structure whose monumental façade and curved geometry already feel faintly space-age. Rather than neutralising that character, 25hours amplified it. Architecture practice O&O Baukunst and Studio Aisslinger transformed the building into a 207-room hotel built around an irresistible premise: what if the optimistic future imagined in the 1960s had actually happened? The result feels somewhere between modernist office headquarters, lunar base and particularly stylish episode of The Jetsons.
The Future, According to 1969
Inside, curves become the recurring language. Circular lighting, rounded furniture, cockpit-like chairs and sweeping banquettes sit against polished metals, bright colours and warmer timber surfaces. It could easily have tipped into themed-hotel territory. Instead, Studio Aisslinger treats retro-futurism as a design vocabulary rather than decoration. The fantasy is supported by the architecture itself: the building’s circular plan, concrete structure and period proportions provide enough authenticity for the playful additions to make sense. The public spaces have the energy of an imagined 1960s research laboratory after everyone has abandoned the experiments and started ordering cocktails. Which, for a 25hours hotel, feels entirely appropriate.
Retro or Future?
The guestrooms continue the narrative with categories broadly divided between Retro and Future. Some lean into timber, warmer tones and mid-century references; others push towards cooler surfaces, metallic details and more explicitly space-age styling. There are playful graphics, bold lighting and bathrooms integrated into the overall design rather than treated as purely functional boxes. Yet underneath the theatre, the rooms remain highly practical. That’s one of the things 25hours tends to do particularly well: design can be eccentric without becoming inconvenient.
Cologne From Above
The top of the building provides the visual payoff. On the eighth floor, NENI Cologne combines Haya Molcho’s Eastern Mediterranean-influenced cooking with panoramic views across the city. Next door, Monkey Bar turns the skyline into evening entertainment. The twin spires of Cologne Cathedral rise across the rooftops, providing a rather spectacular counterpoint to all the futuristic design inside. A 13th-century Gothic cathedral viewed from a 1960s office block reimagined as a 21st-century retro-space hotel. Cologne has range.
A Hotel Built for Hanging Around
As with the best 25hours properties, the lobby isn’t treated as transitional space. There are books, objects, record players, typewriters, unusual seating arrangements and corners designed specifically for doing very little. Locals mix with guests. Coffee turns into cocktails. The hotel’s humour keeps the design from becoming overly precious, while bicycle rental offers an easy escape once you’ve had enough intergalactic interior design for one afternoon. Outside, the Friesenviertel provides bars and nightlife, while the Belgian Quarter, city centre and cathedral are all easily reached.
Why It Works
Retro-futurism can age remarkably badly. 25hours Hotel The Circle avoids that problem because its fantasy begins with the real architecture. The circular building, modernist proportions and 1960s heritage provide the foundation; Studio Aisslinger simply allows the optimism, weirdness and experimentation of that period to run again. The Circle isn’t really about imagining the future. It’s about remembering how much fun people once thought the future was going to be — then adding cocktails and a view of Cologne Cathedral.
