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Arrival & Gardens
A white villa among palms, lawns and a pool.
Hotels & Resorts
226 | Palais WIA
Location
Boulevard des Martyrs, Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Type
Boutique Hotel
Recognition
The idea
A hotel of rooms that tell stories.
Palais WIA is a boutique hotel on the Boulevard des Martyrs in Cocody, Abidjan, set among gardens of palms and lawn. The interiors draw on African and Ivorian culture through shapes, artefacts and craft, with close attention to detail from the entrance onwards.
Its guest rooms are thematic: each suite is dedicated to a leadership figure who shaped Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire or the continent, and carries that figure’s character into the room, so that every stay becomes a cultural experience. Around them, lounges, a bar and private dining rooms are worked in dark lacquer, brass, veined stone and mirror.
Material palette
Bevelled mirror lattice
Private dining
Grey vein-cut stone
Bathrooms
Fretwork rug
Bedrooms
Houndstooth weave
Bar chairs
About the project
Through the hotel, from garden to suite
Guests arrive through the gardens, where the white villa sits among lawns, palms and a pool. Inside, the lobby leads into lounges divided by carved screens, with patterned stone underfoot. The public rooms continue to the bar and a set of private dining rooms. Each suite has its own lounge and dining room, furnished differently from the next, before the route reaches the bedrooms and, beyond them, the bathrooms.
Bevelled mirror in a lattice pattern lines the private dining rooms, multiplying the light of the chandeliers and the painted walls. In the bathrooms, grey vein-cut stone gives the rooms a calm, continuous surface. Fretwork rugs in the bedrooms repeat the patterns of the lobby screens and soften the dark lacquer around them. At the bar, chairs are upholstered in a houndstooth weave, a tight graphic textile set against timber and teal. The hotel is in Cocody, Abidjan.
A boutique hotel lives on its identity, and Palais WIA in Abidjan takes that identity from its own country. Rather than importing a generic luxury style, the interiors make Ivorian and African culture the reason to stay. Suites dedicated to leadership figures give each room a story, so a return visit can mean a different room and a different story. The public rooms work as a sequence of lounges, bar and private dining, so the hotel can host quiet stays and private events side by side. Dark lacquer, brass and veined stone keep the rooms cool in tone against the green of the gardens. The interior architecture is by IAIA.
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