The Fortress in Angeles City is a 15-story hotel situated in the heart of the bustling central business district. This premier development uniquely combines medieval and modern themes, creating a distinctive atmosphere for guests. Spanning a total area of 2,392. The hotel also features two levels of basement parking, ensuring convenience and accessibility for visitors.
Project Name: The Fortress Hotel
Location: Angeles City, Pampanga
Client: New Nordic Group
Site Area: 2,392.38 sqm
Project Area: 23,660.96 sqm
Type: Mixed Use, Hospitality
A luxurious monolithic structure with an integration of the medieval fortress and the modern buildings rises above the bustling commercial and residential neighborhood in Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines. The Fortress Hotel in Angeles City is the New Nordic Group’s first attempt at delivering fairytale-like hospitality fantasy in the Philippines.
Towering 60 meters high, this five-star hotel sits alongside two access roads. The building is divided into 14 floors at ground level and two basement levels below it.
The design intent is to celebrate the richness of the 15th century while still catering to the aesthetics and modernities of the 21st century. This fusion of old and new is the main attraction of the project. The architectural response was to combine commercial, residential, and recreational spaces surrounded by sophisticated medieval skin and interiors.
With a deep gray natural stone finish, this free-standing hotel in Angeles City is oriented in a way that appears as two towers on approach and is adorned with a battlement crown. Windows and concealed balconies are recessed to showcase a spectacle of light and shadows as the thickness of its walls protects the intricacies of its form.
The drop-off has a drawbridge entry floating above a moat with water features of fountains and falls. A protruding façade of battlements highlights the main entrance of varying natural textures ranging from stone, wood, and wrought metals. The planning configuration of its interiors is classified into zoning levels with connecting openings and corridors.
A discreet metaphor for medieval craftsmanship, the diversity in materiality exhibited by each interior treatment collectively recalls the history of medieval aristocrats. Upon entry, the Fortress Hotel in Angeles City unveils its royal lobby with lounges, bars, and reception counters. The lobby links to the restaurant on its northwest, retail shops on the southwest, and the function hall with an outdoor bar and gardens on its right.
Twin panoramic elevators offer a majestic view of the atrium’s secret water gardens while transporting guests to their rooms. The grand staircase is decorated with archways spiraling upward that also act as an emergency exit staircase. The hotel’s lodging units at each level are classified into four typologies inspired by the medieval social classes of knight, noble, great, and lord. Adding a luxurious touch to the premium rooms is the inclusion of oxygenated dipping tubs and wet balconies with technologies for anti-aging and detoxifying benefits.
Large window panes are fitted flush to naturally illuminate the interiors while welcoming guests with a cinematic view of the western open atrium. The Fortress Hotel in Angeles City is a place to escape while still longing for modern luxuries.
This fantasy hotel in Angeles City is both romantic and mysterious. There is a mezzanine that can be accessed by a slightly concealed staircase that leads to an intimate, vaulted wine cellar and connected to the function halls. Adjacent to this cellar is a wellness and health gym with a hydrotherapy spa center. A serpent-inspired bar and restaurant can be found directly below the wine cellar. The restaurant is a 95-pax dining and drinking haven inspired by a distinctive sinuous waffle ceiling snaking through its frame.
Crowning the hotel’s medieval body is a party roof deck. The open-to-sky entertainment area unites the wet activity areas, cabanas, private booths, lounges, pool bar, and music booth into a perfect avenue for high-class leisure and fun.
The hotel’s apex is identified by a series of massively high battlements concluding this medieval-meets-modern hotel in a celebratory salute. A combination of the past and the present, the old and the new, the analog and the digital. This unique hotel in Angeles City is culminating in architectural aspirations and experiential references to offer a first and one-of-a-kind experience fusing two vastly different centuries together. An immortalized past in a mythic attire, The Fortress Hotel in Angeles City is a true visual storyteller for the eyes, the happy heart, and the wandering soul.