Europe's most anticipated hotel opens: The Fontenay, Hamburg, Germany

It's only six storeys high, but one of Europe's most anticipated new hotels took four years to complete, running over time by almost two years.

Now open, the wait was worth it, as the Fontenay, in Hamburg, Germany is being hailed for its unique form – a form that created structural complexities leading to the delays.

Within treed parkland in the well-heeled Rotherbaum district, on the west bank of the Hamburg's Alster Lake, the Fontenay casts a beautifully organic figure in keeping with its surrounds, including its exterior of shimmering tiles, which obeys a local planning law that stipulates all buildings next to the lake be white.

On the site of a demolished 1970s hotel, Hamburg-based architect Jan Stormer of Stormer Murphy and Partners created what is the first five-star hotel in 18 years for the northern Germany port city.

Its ambitious and intriguingly irregular form, and the fact that Hamburg has no high-rise structures, means views are afforded in every direction, incorporating the lake, Hamburg's ornate City Hall, and the new Elbphilharmonie building.

Inside, the wow factor rises like the 30-metre atrium with six metres of dangling chandelier as a centrepiece.

Overall, the sculptural form creates three wings housing 131 rooms and suites, all with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies.

Michelin-starred chef Cornelius Speinle is on the pans at the rooftop Lakeside restaurant, which crowns the building alongside a bar, spa, and a 20-metre, horizon-edge indoor/outdoor pool. There's a more casual eatery and another bar downstairs.

The Fontenay is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World group. Rooms from €355.

See thefontenay.de