“How can you improve the look of Botel, in order to make it fit in with the dynamics and creativity of the NDSM wharf, in the north of Amsterdam?” This was the question that Botel-owner Sandra Chedi put to MMX architects (Arjan van Ruyven & Michiel van Pelt) in 2011.

Together with film maker and architect Jord den Hollander they developed a bold plan. Five 6.5 -meter-high hotelrooms in the shape of huge toy letters make up the silhouette B O T E L on top of the ship. The white hotel boat has been given a cheerful crown, referring to the chimneys of the ocean liners that used to come off the now derelict NDSM slipways.

For the interiors of the letters several designers were challenged. Richard Hutten designed a half-pipe in the B, &Prast&Hooft was inspired by the book L' Histoire d'O for O and architect Moriko Kira turned the L into an oasis of calm. Designer Jord den Hollander made the smallest cinema of the Netherlands in the E, and MMX architects saw in the top room of the T the captain's quarters of Botel.