Roundtable – The New Era of Luxury in Hotel Design – Hotel Designs
Image credit: The Gove, Hertfordshire
In an exclusive roundtable with Hotel Designs, in association with Gabriel Scott, leading interior designers and architects gathered to discuss materials, lighting and sustainability when exploring luxury hotel design in 2022 and beyond.
Like all things in hotel design and hospitality, luxury and what is considered high-end is a subjective matter. Arguably, making the topic and discussion around it more compelling, the boundaries between luxury and lifestyle have no-doubt been blurred in recent years, as hotels adapt to new demands from modern travellers.
The exclusive discussion, which marked the brand’s 10th anniversary, started with the question: what materials, colours and trends are dominating interior design at the moment? The response from James Dilley, Director, Jestico + While, set the scene. “There are two things focusing us at the moment,” he said. “One is the natural quality of materials, and the other being craftsmanship.”
With more hotels opening to shelter a more in-depth sense of craft, Sam Hall, Head of Global FF&E, believes that mass production in luxury could be a thing of the past, as clients want items that are personal to their brand. “Everything has become so much more readily available,” she said. “It’s about the craftsmanship that makes the quality of the natural materials appear.”
This led the conversation into an interesting talking point, and the topic of biophilic design was introduced. Interior designer Martin Hulburt, who recently completed, for the second time in his career, a renovation inside The Grove in Hertfordshire, believed that nature can be used as a powerful tool when creating luxury spaces in the future. “The first time we renovated the hotel, we threw out the concept of luxury because we wanted to create something different,” he said. “Recently, we just went into the project with an open mind. I have always preferred using unpolished wood over veneered-looking wood, or sackcloth over silk. In this case, we have mixed them all up together.”
Addressing the architects in the room, when the conversation went down the route of materials, the point was made for the need of a stronger relationship with interior designers and other contributors. At this point, Margarita Boulaki, Associate, Squire & Partners, brought up the need for collaborative approaches. “Materials and sustainability are combined in the design process,” she said. “We see natural materials in the architecture structure and it’s not uncommon these days for these elements to be exposed for interior designers to start their concepts from there. It’s a highly integrated process, from inside out.”
It would be remiss to have a discussion regarding luxury without bringing up lifestyle, which was the perfect cue for Rachel Hoolahan, Sustainability Co-Ordinator at Orms, which in 2019 completed its work on The Standard London. “When you come into a building like The Standard London, you have to be inspired by what you are inheriting,” she said. “For us, that was the facade. Our plan was to retain the original structure, which was at the time considered a negative contributor. After understanding why this was, we then decided to add a contemporary extension to the building. 1960s brutalist original concrete is not what people would consider luxury. The interior designers, though, were really inspired by this retro aesthetic, and worked with the building to pair soft furnishings, which created a warm and welcoming experience.”
Watch the video of the roundtable here.
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