With it’s seamless mix of art deco period charm and modern functional luxury, the Hub Porteño in Buenos Aires is a subtly nonchalant tip of the hat to the belle epoch of a truly stylish city.

In their transformation of a grand old family home in the Recoleta district into a high-end hotel, architect Ivan Robredo and interior decorator Valeria Bonnano have kept many of the features created by the last generation of skilled Argentinian artisans who lent their talents to the Palacios residence – reworking, shifting, but essentially retaining the beautiful craftsmanship that gives the Hub Porteno that sense of bygone glamour. The lapacho wood of the mansion’s staircase, for example, now graces the floor of the library bar – details like this give the venue an almost tangible provenance.

The designers maintained the feel of the aristocratic mansion wherever possible, even leaving the Palacios’s beloved fig tree in situ, growing up through the dining room. Aside from the 11 suites, there are many feature rooms, upholstered timelessly in various hides and silks, while the improvements of progress have not been stifled for the sake of slavish nostalgia, notably in the bathrooms. Classic, in every sense of the word.