Already much loved by digital nomads for its sunny disposition and lively street life, Lisbon’s lure has just increased exponentially with the opening of Locke de Santa Joana, a design-savvy, urban resort, offering spaces for co-working, play and even an impressive gym open 24/7, right in the heart of the capital. Marking Locke’s sixteenth opening, which follows Locke am Platz in Zürich, and the largest to date, the new Lisbon outpost skilfully blends the beautiful bones of a 17th-century convent, with a purpose-built, design-led hotel.
Locke de Santa Joana, Lisbon
Following Locke’s commitment to using different designers for their projects to ‘keep the brand fresh’, 370 rooms in natural tones come courtesy of New York-based Post Company. Sense of place comes from using local fabrics, ceramics from Lisbon’s Grau Cerâmica and period elements from the convent, such as blue and yellow azulejos (tiles), which are woven throughout the property’s four blocks. All but thirty of the rooms come with a well-equipped kitchen, with tables to eat at, teas from the Lisbon Tea Company and Drip Coffee. Showers, rather than tubs, are housed in dusky plum-coloured bathrooms. Those in search of something different should book the rooms in the old convent, where beds are framed by marble columns.
But it is the spaces outside the stylish rooms that will, particularly for locals, be what entices them. Currently, the swimming pool inset in the leafy courtyard is the draw, but come autumn, doors will have swung open on the plethora of restaurants, operated by White Rabbit Projects and bars, led by Spiritland, housed here. Designed by Lázaro Rosa Violán, these embrace their heritage in design details, from the framed knives and forks once used by the nuns on the wall of the Santa Marta Restaurant (try the charred red prawns from the Algarve with spicy coriander) to the ancient library, with illuminated alabaster into which cocktail bar, Spiritland has been inserted to the mesmerising black and pink marble floors of Santa Joana seafood restaurant.
As Paul Noble and Sophie Uddin of Spiritland said of Locke’s listening bar, The Kissaten, where their private vinyl collections will be available (as well as a range of whisky curated by Dave Broom), ‘this is something for creative, Bohemian aficionados’. The same could be said of Locke de Santa Joana itself.
Locke de Santa Joana is located at R. Camilo Castelo Branco 18, 1150-084 Lisbon, lockeliving.com
