BITES OF THE BIG APPLE
Great journeys
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FROM RUNWAY TO RUNWAY: LUXE NOMAD ON THE ART OF THE AIRLINE UNIFORM P9
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Once hotel choice was all about location, location, location: now it's design, design, design, writes Ute Junker. wo weeks after the makers ofMad Max: Fury Road walked offwith half a dozen Oscars in Los Angeles, another group of Australians were making it big at a very different awards night on the other side of the world. At the Asia Hotel Design Awards, held in March in Singapore, several Australian architects and designers were honoured. The winners included Melbourne's BAR Studios, which scored four awards for its design of the Rosewood Beijing hotel, and Sydney's Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, which received the Urban Design award for the Old Clare Hotel in Sydney's gritty inner-city Chippendale. Tonkin Zulaikha Greer is hoping to repeat the feat next month in New York, whereithasbeen named among the five finalists in the Lifestyle Hotel Category at the Hotel Design Awards, competing against high-profile properties such as New York's Sixty Soho. Australian hotel design is on a roll- and not before time. For too long the owners and developers of our hotels chose to play it safe, with don't-scare-the-horses design that felt decades behind the bold,
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inventive approaches appearing elsewhere in the world. While a handful of talented Australian architects built careers overseas, local properties were noticeably lacking the spectacular lobbies, the seductive rooms and the sort of eclectic design that, as acclaimed hotel designer Kit Kemp puts it, "draws you in [and] captivates your imagination". Now that's all changing. A new crop of Australian hotels has shown what our designers can do when given the opportunity. Take the Old Clare Hotel in Sydney, which straddles two old buildings on the former site of the CarltonUnited Brewery. Its rooms feature an industrial-style fitout, while the bar -located in an old pub- draws on eclectic influences including art deco and grunge. Perth's two newest hotels could not be more different. The neoclassical exterior of COMO The
emphasising the handmade and Treasury hides luxurious yet pared-back interiors punctuated the salvaged, can be seen in everything from the hotel with prints ofWest Australian wildflowers; across town, The Alex corridors, which resemble mine in Perth's inner-city Northbridge shafts, to the bedheads made of salvaged oak. channels a hipster vi be, with casual communal areas and an Joining Hotel Hotel is the freshly unveiled Vibe Hotel Canberra open bar that operates on an Airport, with a dramatic honours system. The unlikely centre of the centrepiece in the shape of a spiral Australian hotel design boom is 路 dome clearly modelled on Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Canberra, which has been in the spotlight since the opening of Hotel Museum in New York. Hotel two years ago. Still the most A QUESTION OF IDENTITY ambitious design property in That sense of personality has Australia, the tautologically titled hotel- which boasts a fistful of become essential to a hotel's awards, including a gong for World success. "Ten years ago, the buying decision was about price Interior of the Year from and features and status," says Singapore's World Architecture Festival and the National Award Rachel Argaman, chief executive ofTFE Hotels, which operates路 for Interior Architecture from the Australian Institute of Architects- Canberra Airport's Vibe Hotel: "What is happening now is that surprises visitors at every turn. The design ethos, inspired by people want a sense of discovery. They want something unique, the Australian shack and
something individual, something that feels like a whispered secret." "People who book into a hotel are going there for an experience," agrees Tim Greer of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer. "They want a building they can engage with." While there is no doubt Australian travellers are more design-aware than before, many of us do not register the intricacies that characterise good hotel design. It is doubtful that many of the guests at the Vibe Canberra Airport, for instance, would recognise the circles and triangles that recur throughout the designfrom the tiles in the bathrooms to the seating arrangements in t he lobby- reflect the geometry of Walter Burley Griffin's plan for Canberra. That is just fine with Philip Vivian of Bates Smart architects, who created the design. "People appreciate good design whether
Three decades of Australian hotel design AYERS ROCK RESORT Building a hotel in the heart of the desert is one thing; creating a whole township is another. Architect Philip Cox's low-slung design for Ayers Rock Resort featured three hotels, shops and restaurants, staff quarters, and the associated infrastructurenone of which stood higher than the surrounding sand dunes.
2000
See ayersrockresort.com.au
See palazzouersace.com.au
1984
1987
SHERATO MIRAGE, T OUGL Businessman Christopher Skase hogged the headlines in the 1980s and the Sheraton
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PALAZZO VERSACE,
GOLD COAST The Gold Coast may have seemed a surprising location for the world's first fashion hotel but the success of Palazzo Versace launched a thousand imitators. With everything from cutlery to cushions designed by Versace, the effect was anything but understated.
Well heeled: Palazzo Versace y.ras the world's first fashion hotel.
Mirage Resort, which launched Port Douglas as a holiday destination, was his Versailles. Skase's wife, Pixie, was responsible
for many of the furnishings, which included gold taps, antique clocks and Roman statues.
See sheratonportdouglas.com
2007
\lUALIA, WHITSUNDAYS QUEENSLAND This five-star Hamilton Island property introduced Australia to an Asian-inspired approach to
luxury. The individual pavilions designed by Chris Beckingham feat ured tranquil stone and Wf>od interiors, bathtubs wit h a view and, in some cases, a private plunge pool.
See qualia.com HOTEL HOTEL, CANBERRA It took more than 70 creatives to conjure up Hotel Hotel, the Canberra property that ch~llenged notions of what a hotel should look like. Everything in this property comes as a surprise, from the mine-shaft corridors to the walls of raw concrete and rendered clay.
2014
See hotel-hotel.com.au
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Traveller.com.au
MAY 14-15, 2016
Traveller 17
The restored lobby of Sydney's newest five-star hotel, Primus, is positively palatial in its dimensions. In style: (Clockwise from main) Hotel Hotel's dramatic staircase; the view from Windward Pavilion; Alila Ulawatu; lobby of the Vi be Canberra Airport Hotel; Ayers Rock Resort's Sails in the Desert.
as the guests, rather than on the other side of the counter. The reception area of the Old Clare Hotel in Sydney is also small and low-key, for different reasons. "When you arrive at the Old Clare, you walk into this great urban space in the middle of a contemporary city," says Greer. "We made the reception a deliberately quiet space. It is when you move into the building itself, with mirrored walkways above and a loud vibrant carpet down the corridor, that things get blingy, full of energy, a bit excited." SUITE SPOTS If the entrance experience is of
that is conscious or unconscious," he says. "They may simply think, 'That's interesting, I haven't seen that before, it feels right for the location'." The reason Australian hotels are finally investing in design is simple: they can no longer afford to ignore it. In today's digital world, eyecatching design will not only score you plenty of social media hits, it is also an essential part of the hotel's marketing material with bold design having the ability to secure domestic and international attention and publicity, "Your experience of a hotel starts online," says Greer. "When you are sifting through 20 different hotels, you will respond to the one that is interesting to look at." Argaman says: "Eye-catching design does help the bottom line. Very often it will get you a higher room rate. But it has to be clever design." BACK TO BASICS
Often clever design involves going back to basics. These days, the design team re-examines, and perhaps re-engineers, every element of a hotel. Take the lobby. Once simply a space to house the reception desk, today's lobby is seen as the introduction to the
hotel and as a space where guests are encouraged to spend time. "It is about how you activate those spaces, h ow you allow people to mingle or be alone in a crowd," Argaman says. The soaring atrium that defines the Vfbe Canberra Airport may be eye-catching but it presented a major challenge, says Philip Vivian, in how to create a space that was at once imposing yet cosy. "You need to balance contrasting needs, to create a sense of drama while maintaining intimacy," Vivian says. "You need to feel comfortable if you have a public event with 400 people, as recently happened, but ifyou walk in on a weekday and there are 10 or 12 people working on their laptops or having a coffee, you don't want it to feel dead or echoey." Rethinking the arrival experience was also important to the design team at The Alex in Perth. "Personally, when I go to a hotel with a very small reception, I miss the sense of connection," says Miles Hull, The Alex's general manager. "The hotel becomes just a building with rooms." To circumvent that problem, the designers created a ground floor filled with inviting spaces, slipping in a discreet reception desk at which staff stand on the same side
vital importance, getting the rooms right is also essential. " If you give guests a fantastic communal space, they won't say, 'I'm happy with a second-rate room'," says Vivian. ''At the Vi be, we used much richer materials in the room, where guests will be up close with them. We selected furniture and fabrics that would give a warm, domestic feel." In Perth, The Alex also went for an approach that was more home than hotel. "We deliberately chose
'Eye-catching design does help the bottom line.' [residential, not hospitality-based] interior designers, Arent & Pyke, who create beautiful comfortable homes, not commercial spaces," Hull says. Canberra's Hotel Hotel team took a different approach. Drawing on the idea of the Australian shack in all its permutations, the design emphasises the idea of rawness. With a muted palette of petroleum greens and greys, much of the visual interest comes from the varied textures on the walls, ceilings and floors, featuring everything from raw concrete to felt to clay ren!ler. The rooms have an introspective feel, with deliberately dim lighting (spotlights are provided at the work desk and at the bedside table). "We wanted people to feel like they were a little cocooned in their own little space," co-owner Nectar Efkarpidis.
When what's inside counts BEST LOBBY PRIMUS HOTEL SYDNEY
Old school glamour at its finest is on display in this rediscovered art dec.o gem. The soaring atrium, punctuated with eightmetre-high columns, is bright and airy thanks to a giant skylight.
See primushotelsydney.com BEST ATTENTION TO DETAIL VIBE CA.N BERRA AIRPORT HOTEL
Style statements: (From top) Vibe Canberra Airport Hotel; The Old Clare's bar.
From the phone chargers by the bedside to the easily-accessible power points, this hotel has given careful consideration to what business travellers really want.
BEST BREAKFAST BAR THE ALEX, PERTH
See vibehotels.comau BEST BAR THE OLD CLARE HOTEL, SYDNEY
The huge shared table, laden with muffins, apples and other munchies, makes mornings into a convivial occasion rather than a humdrum dining-for-one experience.
See alexhotel.com.au BEST STAIRCASE HOTEL HOTEL, CANBERRA
A whimsical blend of art deco and grunge influences creates a welcoming vibe in this intimate bar space. Random discovery: lift the handset of the phone in the old booth to hear poetry recordings.
There are several ways to enter Hotel Hotel but the most dramatic by far is the cantilevered staircase made of spars of recovered timber, which jut out at bewildering angles.
See theoldclarehotel.com.au
See hotelchotel.com.au
While Hotel Hotel was a new build, many of the current crop of hotels, including COMO The Treasury and the Old Clare Hotel, are repurposed office buildings. Wade Little ofWoods Bagot Architects says out-of-date offices -many with ornate interiorsrepresent a major opportunity for designers. "These buildings provide a great legacy for a hotelier to get their hands on and build their brand on," Little says. "Most people have never seen the rich fabric inside. Instead oflosing these beautiful spaces, we can reuse and repurpose them." BURIED TREASURES
Little has recently been involved in one such project: Sydney's newest five-star hotel, Primus. Located in a building that once housed the Sydney Water Board, the restored lobby is positively palatial in its dimensions, its art deco decor dominated by eightmetre high (fake) marble columns and light flooding in through a giant skylight. "It was in dire need
of a bit oflove," says Little. "The office fit-out was still in there, with old work stations and a terrible blue carpet. The atrium was concreted in, with an escalator through the middle ofit." Not knowing what lay concealed beneath the contemporary additions, Woods Bagot originally envisaged a different entrance for the hotel, with a central staircase as the featw路e. "When we uncovered the atrium we realised it should be the feature, not the staircase, so we moved that to the side," Little says. Fortunately the developers, launching the first Primus property outside China, encouraged the architects to spend the time, and the money, to find the best solution for the property. Restoring the damaged columns proved to be a challenge. "We had artisans come in from Milan: eight Italian guys who worked six days a week repainting and redetailing," Little says. "Each column took two to three weeks." Continued on page 18
18 Traveller
WEEKEND EDITION
MAY 14-15, 2016
Coversto From page17
Home and away: our architects in demand
The building's heritage listing meant every detail came under scrutiny. "There are around 300,000 tiles in the fire corridor and every one that had a chip or a mark had to retouched and repainted by hand," says Little.
8 Melbourne's BAR Studio has won extensive accolades for its work on the Rosewood Beijing. The hotel design contrasts contemporary furniture with rustic materials such as recycled bronze tiles and bricks sourced from demolished housing.
HANDMADE HOTELS Restorations are not the only projects that require significant manpower. A new build can involve just as much time and energy. Nectar Efkarpidis estimates the design and development process for Hotel Hotel took around four years and involved five separate architects and 75 "makers", or designers and artisans. A commitment to showcasing the handmade is part of Hotel Hotel's DNA. "We connect to the investment in something handmade, knowing that some individual spent their own time, their love and their care," says Efkarpidis. Efkarpidis says commissioning handmade pieces is not necessarily more expensive than buying prefabricated ones but what it does require is time. "If you are interfacing with a multitude of people, having 75 conversations, you can't jam it all into a three week window of procurement," he says. "A small maker is not going to turn something around in three
See rosewoodhotels.com/beijing Trend-setter: Kerry Hill's award-winning Datai langkawi.
AR weeks. But ifyou think about when something is needed, and allow three or four years, those conversations can happen at an orderly pace." Efkarpidis is not the only hotelier whose commitment to design goes beyond mere aesthetics. "Good design combines beauty and functionality and efficiency," says Argaman. At the Vibe Canberra Airport, for instance, the bedside tables are equipped with mobile chargers and power points are located above the desk rather than on the .floor, saving travellers the indignity of getting down on their knees every time they want to plug in the laptop.
Sustainability and dramatic design meet in a wonderful fashion in Hotel Hotel's celebrated wooden staircase. One publication described it as "the Millennium Falcon going into hyperdrive"- an odd description that only makes sense once you have actually seen it. For Efkarpidis, the most remarkable thing about the staircase is that it was made of discarded timber. "The idea of reuse, that you can deliver a really beautiful thing with throwaway materials, is really potent," he says. "That staircase has more credibility when it comes to environmental sustainability than a 10,000-page document no one is ever going to read." T
ESIGN
Sydney-based architect Mary Lou Thomson has plenty of admirers, including Architectural Digest magazine, which named Gangtey Goenpa Lodge the Best Remote Hotel for 2014. Her luxury take on a traditional Bhutanese farmhouse features interiors decked out with stone, polished wood and local textiles.
See easternsafaris.com
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best-known property remains Tte Datai Langkawi, an ecofriendly development for which he received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
See aman.com, thedatai.com
KELVINHO There is a surprisingly modernist feel to the design Kelvin Ho's Akin Creative delivered for the newly opened Amilla Fushi resort in the Maldives. Ho has a penchant for doing things differently: witness the resort's tree houses, which have private pools suspended amid the palm fronds.
See amilla.mv
HARDH
SE
Hassell's Singapore-based WOHA Studio, a partnership with Wong Mun Summ, is known for its eco-sustainable developments. Bali's Alila Uluwatu resort, for instance, was constructed using local locally sourced materials such as limestone, pumice, bamboo and coconut wood.
See alilahotels.com/uluwatu