The antidote
Maison Brummell Majorelle is a minimalist escape in maximalist Marrakech.
By Nicola Chilton
One of the world’s most intoxicating cities, Marrakech revels in a maximalist aesthetic. From the smallest riad to its palatial hotels, the city is a kaleidoscope of multicoloured zellij tiles, intricate geometric mosaics, and hand-painted, hand-hammered, hand-carved works of beauty. This is not a city that trades in understatement. When it all gets too much, Maison Brummell Majorelle offers a minimalist antidote to the extra-ness of Marrakech.
Opened in 2023, the eight-room boutique hotel is enviably located between the fashionable Gueliz district and the Medina, backing onto the Majorelle Gardens and the Villa Oasis, once the Marrakech home of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. Maison Brummell Majorelle is a passion project for Austrian hotelier Christian Schallert, who entered hospitality a decade ago with Hotel Brummell Barcelona, named after the 19th-century English dandy Beau Brummell, and housed in a building dating to 1870. Schallert’s Marrakech outpost is a departure from that, inspired by local architecture but taking it in a distinctly contemporary direction.
“My next project had to be something jaw-dropping, something that would make people say ‘wow, this is really different,’” Schallert says. He enlisted New Zealand architect Bergendy Cooke and Moroccan architect Amine Abouraoui to bring his vision to life. “I wanted to create something with less ornamentation than many places in Marrakech. I wanted something homier with fewer rooms to appeal to travellers who don’t want to go to big hotels with big buffet breakfasts. That’s why I called it Maison Brummell, because it gives you the feeling that you just stepped into a friend’s home while they’re away.”
Pared-back guestrooms offer handcrafted woodand brass furniture from local producer Maison Nicole.Local carpenters produced bespoke bed bases andbedside tables. Opening image by Christopher Stark. Above by @ladichosa, both courtesy of Maison Brummell Majorelle.
This residential feel also resonates with Cooke. “I think the generosity of the spaces makes for a sense of privacy, as well as an unpretentious feel,” she says. From the peaceful guestrooms, filled with soft, tactile materials, to the living room with its indigo walls and brushed-velvet sofas, and the courtyard fringed by plants, serenity envelops visitors. “The building has an immediate calmness about it that I could not have anticipated,” Cooke says.
In the morning, the chirping of sparrows in the courtyard accompanies breakfasts of Moroccan breads, olive tapenade and fresh fruits. In the courtyard, built below ground level to maximise the Maison’s height which was capped by local building restrictions, the late-afternoon sun casts a golden light onto the bijou swimming pool as a gentle breeze brings jacaranda blossoms from the Majorelle Gardens spiralling across the loungers.
The Maison embraces traditional Moroccan materials and design techniques, rendered in ways that are modern and fresh. The building’s silhouette pays homage to Marrakech’s ramparts. Walls are finished in pisé, a rough mixture of earth and quicklime in a shade of pink that echoes the walls of the Medina. Semicircular arches cut into the exterior walls create windows and balconies that reduce direct sunlight in the interior spaces. “They give a nesting or cocooning feel to the building, like the openings to a cave,” says Schallert.
The afternoon sun casts a golden light onto the swimming pool. Above, the ceilings that frame the staircase are made of bone-coloured tadelakt, a type of polished plaster. Top image by @fvlyacelik. Above by Emily Andrews/Maison Brummell Majorelle..
Inside, the same barrel arches are present in the openings to bathrooms, and in ceilings that frame the central staircase made of bone-coloured tadelakt, a type of polished plaster treated with soap. Abouraoui led a team of artisans working with traditional Moroccan materials—tadelakt for walls and ceilings, hand-crafted bejmat tiles on floors, grey and pink terrazzo in guestroom bathrooms—in a way that is central to the spirit of the project. “It’s about anchoring the hotel in its place, creating something that is contemporary but also deeply rooted in Marrakech’s architectural and cultural identity,” he says.
That identity is also present in the central courtyard, in the transition between indoor and outdoor spaces, and in the way guests interact with them. “They reflect a traditional Moroccan approach to living and hospitality, while also encouraging a sense of calm and a retreat within the urban context,” Abouraoui says. “There’s a quiet magic in seeing spaces that were once only on paper now filled with light, movement and people.”
As much as the Maison leans into traditional techniques and materials, Schallert combines them with signature design pieces. Door handles by Gio Ponti with a matte brushed-gold effect, for example. “I wanted them to contrast with the soft tones of the Maison,” Schallert says. “The inspiration probably came from the jewellery I’ve seen in the Medina.” There are paper lamps by Ingo Maurer and chairs by Egon Eiermann. Bed throws are a collaboration with Santa Living, a company based in Barcelona, and pool towels are from Anajam Home, produced in Fez to add a burst of colour to the slate-grey terrazzo outdoors. “It would be simple just to go to the Medina and buy throws and hammam towels,” he says. “But I wanted to make the extra effort.”
Schallert’s guests include architecture and design fans, many of whom come to Marrakech for the Maison. “Our intent was not to create a faux-Moroccan building, but instead embrace the fantastic materials and the skills of local artisans,” Cooke says. “The Maison has become a showcase for a contemporary architectural interpretation of Moroccan vernacular.”
For Schallert, the opportunity to welcome design-lovers as guests goes even further. “When I meet them, I realise they’re the kind of people I’d like to go on vacation with,” he says. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to. They come to him, and the Maison he has created, an oasis of serenity and contemporary design that honours the thrilling, alluring city it calls home.
