Wilmina Hotel

A former courthouse and women’s prison in Charlottenburg is the unexpectedly gorgeous raw material for Wilmina, a boutique hotel whose renovation leaves much of its original detail intact, but turns its atmosphere 180 degrees from its original purpose — and the sheer welcoming tranquility of the place is similarly the polar opposite of the edgy, confrontational approach favored by many other Berlin boutique hotels.

The adaptation of this once-forbidding structure remains faithful to its raw material, but not too faithful. The windows resemble the originals but have been enlarged, adding a healthy amount of natural light, and the design is a touch austere, but for reasons that are anything but punitive. Pressed leaves and flowers bring a little bit of nature inside, and organic materials predominate, from simple wooden furnishings to all-natural COCO-MAT beds.

Meanwhile, the cuisine can just as aptly be described as a marriage of modernist simplicity and organic warmth. Chef Sophia Rudolph’s vegetable-focused restaurant, Lovis, is tucked away amid gardens and courtyards in the center of the hotel complex; the neighboring Lovis Bar is a low-lit, low-key cocktail bar with a minimalist aesthetic that extends to its behind-the-bar rows of identical brown bottles.