Contemporary design meets old-world charm at this hidden Havana retreat

Havana is famed for its elegant Spanish colonial architecture, Art Deco structures and 1950s designs, though many of these structures are crumbling despite being UNESCO-protected due to a fierce combination of storms, neglect, and economic strife.

It is one of these ailing, baroque 19th-century mansions that Havana-born dancer and musician Sandy Solano Diahave and his partner, Dutch fashion designer and artist André Visser, have revived as a boutique hotel, the A|S Residence.

Presented by The Aficionados, this Old Havana retreat features just five suites and four junior suites, offering an intimate home-away-from-home experience. The couple spent two years restoring the historic mansion and filling its rooms with art and design pieces that blend eclectic European and Cuban influences.

Rooms boast towering five-metre-high ceilings and retain the patina and rawness of the building’s past courtesy of exposed brickwork, stripped doors, and woodwork. All the building’s original elements, including carved columns, intricate ironwork, original Carrara marble, and eclectic handmade floor tiles, have been painstakingly preserved as the base for Diahave and Visser’s curation.

Italian lighting illuminates rooms hung with Cuban art and Visser’s own large abstract canvases, while furniture includes modernist design staples like Barcelona lounge chairs and tables made by local craftspeople.

The A|S Residence has a maximum capacity of just ten guests (and a strict no-children-under-16 policy), but it still manages to serve as a ‘living room’ for locals, thanks to its ground-floor café. HAV Coffee doubles as an art gallery, exhibiting local and international emerging artists and serving Cuban coffee and brunch.

The hotel’s rooftop terrace also provides a splendid vantage point across Havana and can be booked for yoga sessions and dance classes. For the rest of the time, it serves as a quiet oasis to enjoy a drink after a day spent exploring the nearby Obispo and Mercaderes Streets and visiting landmarks such as the Belém Convent, Plaza Belém, the Capitolio, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, and the Gran Teatro de La Habana.