Faena Hotel’s New York outpost immerses guests in decadent and flamboyant design, from its gilded ceilings down to its floor art by Designer Rugs.

Opening to fanfare in September 2025, Faena New York is the third location for the hotel chain that first opened in Buenos Aires in 2005, followed by Miami Beach in 2015. All three hotels are the brainchild of Argentine fashion designer-cum-hotelier and real estate developer Alan Faena.

While Faena himself may always be dressed in white, his hotels are anything but colourless. They embody a particular brand of luxury based on boundless creativity, culture and conviviality – and a touch of the surreal.

Achieving outright opulence a third time

From the moment the first Faena hotel opened in Buenos Aires, it announced itself in saturated reds and theatrical flourishes. Ten years later, the Miami location carried this Faena spirit to North America.

To help realise the vision again in New York, the Faena team turned to two Australian partners to deliver out-of-the-box design solutions. Both Designer Rugs and collaborator Silvana Azzi Heras, founder of the House of Heras, were already at home in the Faena world. Azzi Heras was key creative contributor to the Miami project, working alongside Designer Rugs and long-time collaborators Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin to help shape the brand’s visual language.

“Any time there are rugs or carpet needed in a project, I work with Designer Rugs,” Heras says, crediting the rug brand’s global capabilities, technical skills and decades of experience in high-specification projects.

Behind the scenes, Lia Pielli from Designer Rugs became the linchpin connecting with Azzi Heras in Sydney, interior designer Peter Mikic in London and Faena in New York. From early sampling through to installation, Pielli managed the intricate choreography required to deliver hand-tufted, New Zealand wool rugs into a building where geometry was anything but predictable.

Designing rugs that twist and turn

The brief from Faena was deceptively simple.

“There were no design notes,” Heras recalls. “Just: ‘These are the colours the hotel is working with’.” At the centre of it all was a very particular hue known internally as ‘Faena red’.

Working with Mikic and Designer Rugs, Heras developed a suite of bespoke designs for the guest rooms – ‘Clouds’ and ‘Rockpool’ in three colourways – as well as a distinct design, ‘Webbed’, for the presidential suite.

Complexity arose at the production run. The building itself shifts in form, with no two floors the same and no simple rectangles. Every rug was therefore custom-designed in colour, scale and shape.

The corridors proved the ultimate technical challenge. Unlike standard linear hallways, these were intersecting H- and P-shaped spaces, with bordered designs that had to align perfectly across irregular floorplates. Every pattern needed to visually flow, even though each section was produced and delivered in multiple pieces for installation.

It required forensic attention to floorplans, relentless coordination with on-site construction teams and a level of precision only possible through deep custom expertise. “The twisted structure of the building meant the bordered corridor design had to join seamlessly,” Pielli explains. “There was a lot of back and forth with measurements and details, but we achieved a beautiful outcome.”

That outcome was entirely hand-tufted – including the corridor carpet – adding another layer of complexity to an already ambitious project.

Expanding the story into Faena’s shared spaces

As the project evolved, Heras was asked to design rugs for the hotel’s bar, El Secreto, and restaurant, La Boca.

The reception areas featured leopard print rugs originally designed by Catherine Martin for Miami and adapted for New York, while Juan Gatti’s living room rug designs added further artistic depth.

Throughout this process, Pielli oversaw production – travelling to meet specialist artisans, ensuring quality control at every stage and safeguarding the integrity of the designs.

Floor-to-ceiling theatre

Faena hotels are far from restrained spaces. They are alive and art-driven, filled with sculpture, painting and layered decorative detail. The rugs had no choice but to participate in the drama.

“The rugs just looked amazing,” Pielli says. “To see the size and scope of them was incredible. Silvana’s designs were perfect.”

Managed from Sydney, realised by specialist artisans and installed in New York, the project stands as a powerful example of Designer Rugs’ global capability – combining artistry with technical precision, and vision with delivery.

Learn more about Designer Rugs’ custom capabilities here.

Photography by Nikolas Koenig.