This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a hotel public space redesign. Virserius Studio completed the second phase of the redesign of the Renaissance Paris La Défense in Summer 2018. This involved a partial renovation of the lobby, removing the existing executive lounge, and creating a destination restaurant. Virserius Studio took into consideration the owner’s concerns by blending of older existing elements like the classical towers while incorporating more contemporary design elements. The aim was for the hotel to not just be for guests but for it to be a place the public in this busy section of Paris can incorporate into their busy day, whether it’s grabbing a coffee from the brasserie kiosk or a glass of wine on the way home or meeting on important matters during the day.
SBID Awards Category: Hotel Public Space Sponsored by Viva Lagoon
Practice: Virserius Studio
Project: Renaissance Paris La Defense Hotel
Location: Paris, France
What was the client's brief?
The brief for the project was to reflect the La Défense neighborhood and its surroundings through carefully curated art and lighting. This involved a partial renovation of the lobby, removing the existing executive lounge, and creating a destination restaurant. We wanted the hotel to not just be for guests but for it to be a place the public in this busy section of Paris can incorporate into their busy day, whether it’s grabbing a coffee from the brasserie kiosk or a glass of wine on the way home, or meeting on important matters during the day.
What inspired the interior design of the project?
First, we wanted to pay homage to the art and fashion of Paris. However, we wanted to add elements reflecting the landscape of the beautiful French countryside, located not too far away.
What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?
Renaissance Paris La Défense belongs to 3 political districts, which presented a logistical and construction challenge. We had to file permits in each district; some were liberal, and some were more lenient. There were many stakeholders, complicating the process.
What was your highlight of the project?
Light sculpture that spans 3 floors, focal point 50 ft, visible from everywhere, custom designed by V/S to connect all three floors to penetrate all three level. It’s handblown glass representing algae, but more like snowflake or flower.
Why did you enter the SBID Awards?
A design excellence award distinction from SBID is one of the most prestigious a firm can receive in this industry. With each completed project, we want to present our work to a jury of peers, and recognition is always appreciated.
Questions answered by Therese Virserius, Founder and Lead Designer at Virserius Studio.
We hope you feel inspired by this week's hotel design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
If you missed last week's Project of the Week, featuring a residential design making use of its surrounding nature, click here to see more.
Founder of HomeSmiths and member of the SBID Healthcare Council, Jacqui Smith shares her expertise in the art of care home design as an experienced healthcare designer with a deep understanding of dementia-friendly design.
Relevant and engaging art makes an enormous difference to communal areas in care homes. Whilst colour contrast, good lighting and furniture layout are key to supportive design for older people, well considered art will elevate a scheme from one that works to one that truly enriches the lives of residents. To me, art has a key role to play in making an environment homely and relatable. Whether you are designing a care home or a retirement living scheme, carefully chosen art will help to provide the building with its personality and often enable it to stand out from the competition. For new builds I think that this is especially important since art will help to root the building in the local community by establishing links with what was there before or what residents will know the area for, and therefore be familiar with. I would also say that in some cases, engaging the wider community within the content of the art can be an advantage, not only by reinforcing those community connections but by engaging with a group of people who otherwise might not have necessarily welcomed the upheaval of construction on their door step!
Whilst budget of course plays a role with art, there is so much material to be found on eBay and in charity shops. Art provides a fantastic opportunity to re-use and recycle. At Henley Manor Care Home we commissioned Soozi Jenner from Stitch Creative to create some tactile art panels for the sensory lounge in the dementia community. Using remnants of Sunbury Design, Panaz and Agua fabrics, kindly donated by Steve Nixon at Edison & Day, Soozi created two stunning pieces of art including features such as removable clouds and boats.
One of our clients, a recently opened home in Middlesex, asked us in to transform one of their residential areas into a dementia friendly wing. Pinner Fair has a history dating back to 1336, so we adopted this as a theme for the main lounge. We again engaged the services of Soozi for this project, asking her to create some colourful bunting using remnants from the upholstery fabrics. Hanging the bunting on two levels so that both mobile residents and those in wheelchairs could interact with it, the bunting leads you from the corridor into the lounge. Keen to make this as sensory as possible, we used tactile fabrics and of course the anti-microbial properties of the material will help the bunting to withstand regular touching.
Plenty of famous people hail from Pinner so we were rather spoilt for choice when it came to notable people. Framed Elton John and Tony Hatch albums feature in one of the corridor areas as well as black and white vintage photographs of Ronnie Barker and The Shadows.
At Great Horkesley Manor in Colchester, we embraced a cricket theme for their newly refurbished front of house communal areas. Comprising two adjoining rooms we designed one area with a bar/pub feel and the other as a tea room. Scouring the internet for Essex County Cricket Club memorabilia which we could put to good use, rewarded us with some fantastic old team photographs, a signed cricket bat as well as a vintage cricket sweater, all framed to suit the pub style of the scheme.
Framing vintage catalogues, magazine spreads, books or knitting patterns can provide another sustainable and cost effective way of producing engaging art. An Extra Care scheme we designed in Reading for Home Group, included some 1970s seed catalogues which we found on eBay. Sutton Seeds started life in Reading so one of the corridor wings took on this theme with old black and white images of the original headquarters, an historical time line detailing key points in the company’s past, botanical art and spreads from flower and vegetable pages. It actually took me right back to my childhood where I would sit in my father’s greenhouse, soaking up the warm and the comforting scent of tomato plants, flicking through the Sutton Seeds catalogue, helping him make his selections for the next season.
At Henley Manor, as part of the craft themed lounge and corridor end in one wing of the dementia community, we framed old Patons and Sirdar knitting patterns as well as copies of 1960s and 1970s women’s magazines. Sifting through my eBay haul of crochet and knitting patterns from Women’s Weekly, I came across one of those perfectly posed “catalogue man” shots, sporting a blue cable knit sweater which my mother knitted for my father many moons ago. I also remember us popping into the local newsagents each Thursday after school to collect my mother’s reserved copy of said magazine. Engaging art will prompt memories and start conversations so much more than a generic hotel style watercolour.
Working with Hallmark Care Homes, throughout the dementia community we added framed questions in simple and easy to read, black on white text. These questions encourage engagement with the art by asking questions of the residents. For example, in the Farmhouse Kitchen at Henley Manor, we framed vintage Family Circle magazine covers with classic 1970s dinner party recipes, next to which the question of “Magazines like these were full of recipes, what did you enjoy cooking most?” So the art prompts memories and the question encourages engagement.
Not all projects will have the budget for bespoke and locally themed art, nor the talent within their client team which we had at Henley Manor Care Home, but having an element of it within a design scheme, makes an enormous impact to both residents, care team and people visiting the home. Hollie Allen, Assistant Designer at Savista Design and Build, is hugely creative so it made complete sense to engage her talents for this project. This 80 bed care home, with accommodation over three floors offering residential, nursing and dementia care, presented many opportunities for bespoke art. Hollie’s work included watercolours of iconic Henley shops, vintage tea pots and cake stands for the Riverside Café, to suit the soft green and blush pink of the scheme and soft botanical drawings for the hair salon to echo the fig design of the curtain fabric. Hollie’s work also extended to the Farmhouse Kitchen in the dementia community, with art featuring bread baskets, old fashioned weighing scales and traditional mixing bowls.
Arguably, in the pursuit of interesting angles and approaches to the art, I do spend a great deal of time researching themes, delving into the history of the local area, but the feedback from care teams, residents and relatives does really make it worthwhile. Who knew that Edward III, frustrated that all the Romney Marsh wool was being exported to Europe to be woven into cloth, invited the weavers and dyers from Flanders over to Tenterden in Kent, to teach the local men their art, heralding the start of a decade-long prosperous weaving industry? Or that George Orwell was from Henley-on-Thames? I certainly did not until I started researching themes for an assisted living scheme and care home. Never thought that my role as an interior designer would boost my pub quiz knowledge but there you go!
About the Author
Jacqui Smith, founder of HomeSmiths, is an SBID Accredited interior designer who permanently lost vision in one eye in 2012. Jacqui specialises in healthcare design and uses her experiential knowledge of visual impairment in her designs for care home projects.
If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more.
SpeakEasy with Oli Stephenson
In this episode of the SBID podcast, our host Grant Pierrus catches up with Oli Stephenson, founder and director of Life Kitchens. Oli shares his experiences of running a kitchen showroom business in the wake of the coronavirus, and how the implications of the pandemic will continue to affect the future of the sector.
Life Kitchens utilise some of the best kitchen craftsmen in the business, with decades of expertise in the design and manufacture of contemporary kitchens. Launching the unique and interactive kitchen showroom in London Waterloo, and only in the third year of business, Oli reveals how he has approached the challenges of running a relatively new business during the pandemic. Discussing how the coronavirus outbreak has not only impacted operations, but also what that means for the future of the industry as a whole.
As retail outlets and showrooms begin to re-open, Oli shares his unique perspective on diversification and adaptation - from exploring new ways to engage with customers to shifting their approach to sales and marketing in the digital realm.
Oli continues to comment on the importance of rising to the challenge with a positive attitude as he gives advice on how to be flexible and remain relevant to embrace the fundamental lifestyle changes and societal trends that are yet to come as 'normal' life develops post Covid-19.
Tune in to the whole conversation to discover more.
Oli Stephenson
Oli Stephenson is the founder of Life kitchens. He is the 5th generation of a family business established in 1909 supplying the UK home and interiors trade. Having spent 6 years in kitchen design and sales, Oli launched Life kitchens, as a fresh approach to kitchen retail in London. Now in its third year, Life works directly with clients as well as with interior designers, architects and developers.
The COVID-19 health emergency has accelerated the design process exponentially, pushing companies to respond to new, emerging needs with intelligent and functional strategies, whilst adopting innovative ways to reconnect with the world and make a difference. Moreover, the goal and great merit of the designers lies in the ability to grasp the trends and changes of the eras they live in, and convert them into objects and ideas.
The reopening of public places is the driving force behind the latest challenge designers face - to completely rethink common places in order to recreate new spaces, where all the design elements are in harmony with each other and in which the emotional component reflects the same sense of security and "feeling at home" sensation. All of this is done by involving the consumer in a very conscious way. Enough with the banal and unaesthetic plexiglass plates, we must uncover more client-friendly alternatives!
Whilst COVID-19 is bringing increasing attention towards health and wellness related issues which affect all sectors from food, retail and furnishings to travel and beauty, social attitudes towards sustainability and environmental factors is also still gaining momentum. New products and environments will be strongly influenced by the principles of the Circular Economy, based on concepts such as sharing, reusing, repairing and recycling existing materials and products, abandoning the bad habit of disposable use.
In public places consumers want to feel protected and "safe", for this reason working environments will have to be organised according to some guidelines.
After months of lockdown, it's important to return to the workplace feeling at ease and be encouraged to act responsibly. A six feet office has fixed workstations, semi-isolated or limited by graphics that visually delimit the space, making the safety distances perceived. The periods of ongoing isolation at home have questioned societies habits, encouraging them to seek more and more balance between private life and work life - and will be increasingly eager to work in an environment that reflects the home environment, in colours, furnishings and perfumes.
They must have a partially insulated entrance that acts as a filter with respect to the rest of the room where you can carefully sanitise your hands, deposit your clothes and wear disposable shoe covers. In this regard, Samsung has created AirDresser, a sanitising cabinet that eliminates bacteria, mites and viruses through steam jets.
The menu will be contactless and digital: with the Sooneat app, every customer from their smartphone can avoid the queue at the entrance, sit at the reserved table, consult the menu, photos of the dish, order and pay with a simple click.
Speaking of tables and chairs ... how will they be organised? Large-sized restaurants will have the opportunity to rearrange the tables according to the safety distances provided, but what about small restaurants? To one of my clients I proposed a shaped table top to be screwed simply to the existing table structure, optimising the space compared to combining two square modules.
It will also be very important to reorganise the outdoor spaces. It will be one of the most important missions of restaurants and bars to guarantee an experience up to the past again.
The visit to the hairdresser and beautician will be much more psychological than one might expect, it will be a 360° wellness and beauty experience with customisable treatments and mainly green products, all bookable through an app. New restyling for waiting rooms where possible, with modular furnishing solutions that are able to maintain a minimum contact between customers but respecting the safety distance. The image represents a typical Martex furniture solution before and after Covid-19. The furnishings can be adapted according to needs and are covered with 100% antibacterial fabric.
This post is part of a series exploring the ways that the health emergency of Covid-19 has changed the way we conceive public and private spaces. Click here to read the previous post about private spaces.
Elisabetta de Strobel is an internationally acclaimed Interior Designer and Art Director, originally from Rome. Her studio offers expert consultation services for interior design, product design, branding and strategic market analysis.
This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a lakeside residence designed for an active couple approaching retirement. The client sought to create a home that celebrated the environmentally protected nature surrounding them, where they could enjoy aging in place while granting space for another generation to visit and entertain around lake life. Nature is brought indoors through the extensive glass and is emphasised by the mixed material palette including reclaimed wood, granite, and earth-toned walls. The home’s incorporation of sustainable and accessible design elements ensures that Arcadia House will be the heart of the family for generations to come.
SBID Awards Category: Residential Design Over £1 Million Sponsored by THG Paris
Practice: Visnick & Caulfield
Project: Arcadia House
Location: Massachusetts, United States
The client wanted a home that would act as a gathering place for family and close friends. They felt the home should celebrate its natural surroundings and experience nature indoors. Most importantly, the clients, an active couple, are nearing retirement and wanted their space to accommodate aging in place.
The space is inspired by its immediate surroundings, by being immersed in nature, and by the site’s relationship to the water.
Working within the constraints of the environment proved challenging. The design and construction of the home contended with multiple setbacks surrounding the water, undeveloped land, and sloping topography throughout its uniquely shaped lot. The team overcame the environmental protections in place by using them as interest-driving constraints to derive the form and placement of the house.
Seeing the client fully immersed in their home is immensely rewarding. The highlight of the project is seeing it become a setting that we as designers envisioned – one which brings together family and friends.
We were inspired by the variety and quality of work at the SBID Awards, and hope to take part in the field with such international talent.
Questions answered by Cora Visnick, Architect at Visnick & Caulfield.
We hope you feel inspired by this week's residential design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
If you missed last week's Project of the Week, featuring a 1960’s inspired hotel, click here to see more.
designer and president of Karim Rashid Inc.
Visionary and prolific, Karim is one of the most unique voices in design today. With more than 4000 designs in production, over 300 awards to his name, and client work in over 40 countries, Karim’s ability to transcend typology continues to make him a force among designers of his generation. His award-winning designs include democratic objects such as the ubiquitous Garbo waste can and Oh! Chair for Umbra, interiors for Morimoto restaurant, Philadelphia and Semiramis hotel, Athens, and exhibitions for Corian and Pepsi. Karim has collaborated with clients to create democratic design for Method and Dirt Devil, furniture for Artemide and Magis, brand identity for Citibank and Hyundai, high-tech products for LaCie and Samsung, and luxury goods for Veuve Clicquot and Swarovski, to name a few. Karim’s work is featured in 20 permanent collections and he exhibits art in galleries worldwide. Karim is a perennial winner of the Red Dot award, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design award, Interior Design Best of Year Award, and IDSA Industrial Design Excellence Award. Karim is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences, globally disseminating the importance of design in everyday life.
Karim Rashid | NIENKAMPER, Heartbeat
What excites you the most about the use of artificial intelligence in product design?
I welcome the crossing of artificial and human intelligence. I love evolution, I'm looking forward to the day when we're 50% synthetic and artificial, there's something obsessive, and passionate about us becoming technological beings. I believe that technology is nature since we created it and we are nature and it is a masterplan that we will become seamlessly robotic. Right now, we have robotic technologies that can customize and differentiate production objects (creating one-off using robotic production methods), granting us personalization for anyone and everyone with great accessibility and low cost. Our high-tech objects are outside the body but in a short time they will be inside too. But seriously I will get an implant soon in my hand so that I can open up all my locks and doors in my life without keys.
Karim Rashid | RELAX DESIGN, Pebble Collection
Karim Rashid | RELAX DESIGN, Duo Collection
Karim Rashid | RELAX DESIGN, Meta-Collection
How does democratized design enhance people’s wellness?
Ever since I was a child, I wondered why there couldn't be a more democratic design that everyone could enjoy. Manufacturers can make good business from design. I have had several agendas for 20 years. Firstly is to create democratic objects and to democratize design. Secondly is to disseminate design culture to a larger audience. Thirdly is to make design more human. My aesthetic is very human, and I think it translates well to anything from furniture to a building. Design does change our everyday lives, our commodity, and our behaviours.
Karim Rashid | TONELLI, Tropikal Mirror
How do you stay on top of the latest technologies, material inventions and innovative processes to know what is possible and how far your imagination can fly when you create innovative products?
My design practice is based on my accumulative experiences, years of projects, all the books I have read, all my travels, all the diverse factories I have visited, etc. Working with so many clients gives me insight into so many technologies, manufacturing capabilities, and materials. In this way I can cross pollinate ideas, materials, behaviours, aesthetics, and language from one typology to the other.
Karim Rashid | Boconcept, Chelsea Collection
What would be your dream project if you had complete freedom with budget, location, and time?
I would create hotels in every city I travel. I would like to design a chain of organic restaurants and coffee shops, low-income housing, art galleries, a museum and more humanitarian projects that can help save the earth. And I would build myself an organic home with no straight lines. I love Pierre Cardin's Bubble House (Palais Bulles). I was inspired by his fashion and product design from very early on. The space is so soft, curved, organic and conceptual. Our surroundings should engage technology, visuals, textures, lots of colour, as well as meet all the needs that are intrinsic to living a simpler less cluttered but more sensual envelopment.
Karim is one of the prestigious experts invited to join the extraordinary jury for the SBID Product Design Awards, alongside other renowned professionals across industrial and interior design, brand development, architecture, educational research and forward-thinking enterprise.
Click here to view the full judging panel.
The SBID Product Design Awards 2020 is open for entries. Entries close Friday 14 August!
To find out more about entering, visit www.sbidproductdesignawards.com
founder and creative director, studio LOST
Constantina is the founder of studio LOST, a brand-new design practice focusing on high-end, hospitality, residential and boutique commercial projects in collaboration with the industry’s most respected global brands. Having led the European arm of international hospitality giant HBA for many years, Constantina has worked on award-winning hotel projects around the globe, also creating also an array of bespoke products and furniture lines for her clients along the way.
Camellia Hotel, Opatija, Croatia | Image credit: ©Sanja Bistricic
What challenges and changes to our value systems do you foresee as a result of the ‘great pause’?
I have been thinking our world was due an overhaul, though now is a very vulnerable time for many people. A positive aspect is that technology has enabled many of us to have a window open to the world that lets us keep on working. The technological revolution of the last decades had not significantly changed the typical office setting and routines until now. I think this ‘pause’ will make shifts in the workplace model happen faster. It has shown that an organisation doesn’t need employees physically in the office Monday to Friday for a certain set of hours all the time. From that point of view, I am certain we will all be working more flexibly going forward.
We have also come to appreciate all the basic daily rituals that we may have been too busy to enjoy before: like cooking at home, eating together, appreciating nature, or going for a walk.
SL01 Pendants for Dutch brand Frandsen | Project Image credit: Frandsen Project
Which innovative people or companies should the design industry be paying attention to?
There are many great initiatives happening, and mainly from smaller independent studios. I really admire the young French fashion designer, Marine Serre. She makes innovative ‘future wear’, ordering quantities of existing fabric like denim and regenerating it into new, upcycled creations. Her sourcing is 50% sustainable while creating pieces with a strong, fashion-forward identity.
I am a great believer that we should support the small local businesses around us. When our local restaurants and bars are able to open, it is our spending power that will enable them to keep trading. Every choice we make when spending is voting for the kind of world we want to have.
Amadria Park Hotel Capital, Zagreb | Image credit: ©Sanja Bistricic
While many companies have paused plans while in lockdown, many others have continued.
From our side for example, I pressed ahead to launch studio LOST and kept every commitment I had made previously, like commissioning a branding agency to work with us on the studio’s identity and other consultants to complete all the necessary early stages of work. We stuck to the plan and I am very grateful for the warm reception we have enjoyed from the industry since our launch.
If we want a world rich with different voices of designers, artisans, craftsmen, and independent businesses, it is our support that enables them to survive and flourish.
Piramal Aranya Residences Mumbai | Image credit: ©Hashim Badani
How will luxury design evolve in an era of more thoughtful consumption?
The pause has enabled us to question what luxury truly is. You could consider that luxury, during the lockdown, is the ability to move freely and enjoy a meal with friends! Whereas before that was something we took for granted.
The way forward will hopefully be more sustainable and environmentally friendly. I hope we will think about where things come from, their production, and how their disposal affects the environment.
I am interested in repurposing things and not making everything in a project from scratch: buying vintage, repurposing furniture, infusing an interiors scheme with antiques, and appreciating the craftsmanship of something created a hundred years ago but now finding a new use for it.
In terms of interior design, there will be a lot more upgrades happening in the next few months in the residential sector. Hotels will take a little longer to recover. As for goods, people hopefully will be buying less, but better. Staying in has definitely made me see we actually need a lot less than we realised.
What inspires you both professionally and personally?
More than anything, people and their expressions inspire me: my family; everyone I get to enjoy nice conversations with, exchange ideas and dream – writers; painters; fellow designers and thinkers; and so many more. It’s interesting to look at the world through their eyes and learn from our exchanges.
Constantina is one of the prestigious experts invited to join the extraordinary jury for the SBID Product Design Awards, alongside other renowned professionals across industrial and interior design, brand development, architecture, educational research and forward-thinking enterprise. Click here to view the full judging panel.
The SBID Product Design Awards 2020 is open for entries.
Entries close Friday 14 August!
founder and design director, David Chang Design Associates International
David Chang was honoured as SBID International Design Awards’ Master of Design in 2018. He is a registered professional member of NCIDQ, ASID, SBID and IIDA, and has more than 25 years of experience in hospitality and high-end residential interior design and management experiences in North America and Asia. In 1998, David Chang founded David Chang Design Associates International (DCDA) in Vancouver, Canada, and then expanded to China’s market in 2006, establishing firms in Guangzhou, Beijing and Taipei to provide exclusive upscale design services on landmark projects for local top developers. Deeply influenced by Chinese and Western cultures, David Chang emphasises attention to culture and history as sources of inspiration, thereby creating vitality and rich artistic essence for each project. Moreover, David Chang emphasises interior spaces’ comfort, functionality and the creation of soul in each design. Based on these philosophies, David Chang’s innovative works have won numerous design awards in the UK, Italy, Canada, and China.
F Bistronome Restaurant | DCDA
How has China begun to rebound from COVID-19? How is your studio coping, and are projects that went on hold coming back to life?
After nearly three months of diligent social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, and staying at home, the daily number of new COVID-19 infection has come to an abrupt halt. All walks of life are up and running again. During the outbreak, our studio shut down entirely from late January ‘til late February. To minimise the economic damage caused by this pandemic, we reopened at the beginning of March with employees working three metres apart. Every team member wore masks at all times, and their temperatures were checked upon arrival, at lunch time, and before leaving work. Hand sanitiser was also provided three times per day during office hours. Staff were divided into two groups. In March, the first group worked Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while the second group worked Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then in April the groups switched days. All projects were on hold during these three months. By the beginning of May, projects that has been placed on hold indefinitely began to resurrect in the catastrophic aftermath. Signs of intriguing new projects are also springing up in the market, but that being said, supply is still far more than demand.
Beijing Shimao Loong Palace Type B Villa Luxury Show Villa | DCDA
Who is one of today’s cultural influencers, and how will their perspective influence your future?
There are many cultural influencers across the globe, and one who inspires me the most is Bill Gates. He and his wife Melinda established a foundation whose mission is ensuring children and young people survive and thrive with better healthcare and education so they can rise out of poverty, empowering the poorest people - especially women and girls - to transform their futures, while saving lives by providing adequate medical care to those with greatest needs. In the field of luxury interior design, all our clients have enough wealth to afford our services and products. In other words, we only design for the rich and famous. Inspired by the mission of the Gates Foundation, I see several approaches we could take in our future designs. We can donate our design skills to not-for-profit organisations, charity groups, or foundations. We can also donate a portion of the annual revenue generated from our designs and services to these charity groups.
What’s the best way to design for sustainability?
No matter how sensibly and proficiently we design and build, it’s not possible to 100% eliminate negative environmental impacts. But we can surely minimize them to get as close as possible to zero. The best way to do this is incorporating renewable resources as much as we can during the design and build processes, and then planning how they can be easily recycled or composted once their usefulness has expired.
Poly Garden Sales Center | DCDA
What is the one of the most important lessons you’ve learned in your career?
All design-related professions belong to the field of applied arts, whether interior design, architecture, graphic design, or product design. Applied Arts are all the creative disciplines that apply design, science, and decoration to objects or spaces in order to make them aesthetically pleasing and functionally practical. This means we can’t just focus on how we feel and what we believe an object or space should be. The most important lesson I’ve learned in my career is that we must also try to feel and understand the perspectives, psychological needs, and functional demands of end-users.
David is one of the prestigious experts invited to join the extraordinary jury for the SBID Product Design Awards, alongside other renowned professionals across industrial and interior design, brand development, architecture, educational research and forward-thinking enterprise. Click here to view the full judging panel.
We can all agree that COVID-19 has caused drastic changes in every respect of day-to-day life and consequently, is pushing people towards making different assessments and decisions than they would have made before, with an entirely new perspective on what's important. Perhaps it is the first time in modern history that we have really lived the concept of home; its spaces and its livability.
For many, the enforcement to #STAYATHOME has paved the way for an incredible kind of rediscovery that has brought attention back to our environments which, now more than before, represent the constant background of our lives.
The reorganisation of domestic spaces is one of the first needs that emerges from this, and will be a compromise between the needs, the type of activities performed and the square meters available, both for those who are renovating or buying a house, and for those who simply want to restyle their interior design to create more pleasant and comfortable home environments.
The popular open space entrances that overlook the living room or kitchen will be re-evaluated, preferring instead a partially isolated entrance that acts as a filter for the home. Hybrid solutions can also be adopted that can host, for example, a wardrobe, a shoe rack and a small bathroom, where hygiene-related actions can be performed.
The kitchen, even a small one, is the place of the "carefree meeting" where we cook, experiment and also try out playful activities with the little ones. Staying at home has forced - or perhaps enticed - us to spend more time back in the kitchen. A return to the origins but also a chance to spend more time together, setting aside home delivery services like Just Eat for some quality cooking time! We begin to focus more on making kitchen spaces more adaptive for cooking with the family and performing other activities (like homework!).
Smart working areas will be essential for future flexible working possibilities. From a minimal desk or a coffee table as a support surface on the side of the sofa to a deeper shelf inserted in an equipped wall, creating smarter working stations will become increasingly important. These spaces should be close to natural light, so as to feel less constrained and 'boxed in'! Alternatively, using perimeter lighting systems that give the environment a calibrated and homogeneous light can help to simulate the solar one.
Introducing more plants into the home helps us feel less detached from the outside world. Bringing more of nature inside, together with relaxing fragrances to perfume the air, can improve our mood - as well as productivity!
A multi-functional bathroom can also double up as a space-saving fitness area. Integrating bathroom furnishings dedicated to personal care into a gym system could help keep you in shape at all hours of the day with compact fitness corners, suitable for any types of space.
Air purifying becomes a key concern. As our awareness of health and hygiene comes to the forefront, we look to keep the temperature of rooms controlled in order to promote psycho-physical well-being; evaluating the use of machines capable of transforming oxygen into ozone to fight bacteria, viruses, mites and moulds.
Finally, we cannot forget the outdoor environments too (even if it's just a balcony or a small terrace) - outside areas have been seen as a real luxury throughout the quarantine period, providing that all important access to fresh air and open space. The value placed on outside areas and gardens, what they look like and how to maximise them, will become bigger considerations moving forward in a post-coronavirus world.
In short, it is necessary to design quality houses, with intelligent solutions that allow you to optimise spaces that are no longer a trivial copy and paste from design magazines but that, on the contrary, are able to reflect the personality and way of life by those who live there!
This post is part of a series exploring the ways that the health emergency of Covid-19 has changed the way we conceive public and private spaces. Click here to read the first post.
This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a 1960's inspired Hotel Public Space. 2019 SBID Awards Finalist, Smallwood, had the challenge of ensuring a strong arrival moment for guests, given that the hotel entrance shares a lobby with the office tower and the residences. It was therefore important to give the guest a strong visual impact and to zone the arrival experience of a Waldorf Astoria that could easily compete against the multiple design languages of the adjacent office and residential lobby spaces.
Practice: Smallwood
Project: Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
The client’s brief called for a mid-modern approach, and unusually for Dubai, without any cultural references to the locale but a design that reflected the styling of the exterior architecture.
The client gave the styling of the American television series “Mad Men” as the design direction, so a strong New York sixties feel to the interior architecture and FF&E was used throughout.
To create a series of zoned spaces across Level 18 that prevented square meterage from being lost to circulation. With a total interior width of 25metres and a length of over 80m, Smallwood created ‘rooms within rooms’ so that the spaces interconnected, obviating the need for multiple circulation routes.
The opportunity to design an interior of a hotel in the Middle East with a cool aesthetic very different from the more typical hotel projects in the region.
We believe SBID is a highly prestigious design awards competition and it is a great way to showcase our new projects across the region to both operators and developers.
Questions answered by Joshua Rayner Roger Judd, Interior Design Director at Smallwood.
We hope you feel inspired by this week's Hotel Design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
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