Spending a night at the Fontana Park Hotel is like a one-night stand with a very handsome architect. The fashionable crowd is intrigued by this complicated cad's intelligence, good looks and even wit, to boot. But for some well-seasoned travellers, they will swallow the truth long before climbing onto his firm mattress, swathed in high thread count, and stacked with king-sized pillows: like last season’s architectural shoes, style overrides comfort.

The hotel scene in Lisbon has just been kicked up a notch with the arrival of Fontana Park Hotel, a member of Design Hotels. The hotel is housed in a former iron works factory, and Portuguese architect Francisco Aires Mateus has kept some of the building's industrial feel and look. Fontana Park has a streamlined look, with concrete walls and the colour palette is mostly grey and black, but it's broken up with eye popping bursts of purple and yellow. The reception area showcases some ironworks in homage to the building's past, and there are 139 guestrooms. Fontana Park Hotel has two restaurants: Saldanha-Mar which serves fresh fish and seafood, and Bonsai for Japanese cuisine. Fontana Park Hotel, Rua engenheiro vieira da silva, 2, 1050-105 Lisbon, Portugal, Phone: 351 213 576 212