Hotel Puerta América, Madrid

Eight kilometers from the Madrid-Barajas Airport lies one of the most creative and ambitious design projects in recent memory. Spanish hospitality group Hoteles Silken brought together 19 architecture and design studios from 13 countries to work on a single project. Not that there was much collaboration: there isn't a common visual theme throughout the hotel. Each designer was granted complete creative freedom with regard to the assigned space.

With the façade by Jean Nouvel, a Christian Liaigre-designed restaurant and other spaces by Zaha Hadid, Victorio y Lucchino and Marc Newson, the Hotel Puerta América's 342 rooms and common areas represent different expressions of the use of material, color and shape. In a statement by the company, the 34,000 square meter, 75 million Euro project is described as "unique, merging different ways of seeing architecture, design and art." www.hotelpuertamerica.com