Flash

January 2023

DIA GUILD’S “TYING CULTURES THROUGH CRAFT” AT HYATT CENTRIC KOTA KINABALU

Kota Kinabalu, 12 January 2023 - “Tying Cultures Through Craft” is a collaboration between Dia Guild, an online platform that champions Southeast Asian artisanship, and the newly opened Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu. The pop-up spotlighted artisans and luxury brands who fuse heritage craftsmanship with modern design to celebrate the region’s vibrant culture. A selection of Dia Guild’s curated partner brands were showcased, including TALEE Studio, a Sabah-based jewelry house, and award-winning Filipino designer Neil Felipp, whose minaudière bags are featured in the Crazy Rich Asians franchise. The event also features a schedule of dynamic programming that brings together Kota Kinabalu’s creative community. This includes live music from local musicians, a fashion panel talk with East Malaysian designers, and a spoken word poetry night. For more information, go to web.facebook.com/DiaGuildSEA

Dengan Chinta Art Exhibition

Kota Kinabalu, 17 January 2023 -’Dengan Chinta’, a contemporary art exhibition showing works of Sabahan artist Harold Egn Eswar, and curated by Kotak8sireh, was officially launched at Kota-K Art Gallery. The exhibition addressed participatory social mapping projects that the artist calls ‘spatial biography documentations’. It highlighted the maps of spaces Egn has lived in and also been to. Egn sees and interprets these places and spaces in his own personal ways. ‘Dengan Chinta’ shared these perspectives and the perspectives of Egn’s collaborating participants through these community driven spatial biography documentation projects. The launch was also a teaser of the soon to be officially opened Kota-K Art Gallery at Laman Seni, where the exhibition is located (next to Wisma Budaya).

HYATT CENTRIC KOTA KINABALU: A NATURE-INSPIRED LIFESTYLE HOTEL OFFERING A MULTI-SENSORY EXPERIENCE

Designed by world-renowned architect, Kengo Kuma from Japan, Hyatt Centric the heart of the city’s lively dining and entertainment district, offers an experiential stay for savvy travelers and residents alike, from adventure seekers to culture vultures. Embedding the beauty of Sabah’s pristine nature in its interiors and featuring an extensive work of art by local artisans, this 222-room lifestyle hotel has also collaborated with well-known local fashion designer, Melinda Looi, to design the hotel team’s vibrant-colored uniform to further enhance the overall guest experience.

“We are delighted to work with award-winning Kengo Kuma and Melinda Looi - who are masters of their craft - to drive the design and the look and feel of the first Hyatt Centric hotel in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Kengo Kuma has beautifully incorporated elements of nature in the hotel design, so our guests get to experience what it is like to stay in the Borneo Forest, with modern comforts as they seek their own adventure in the city. To complement this is the fun and fashion forward attire designed by Melinda Looi for our teams of passionate individuals - the heart of the hotel - to further enhance the guest’s experience. We want to provide a journey of discovery for our guests through the hotel’s unique interior spaces and art pieces, where they can discover and further explore the rich, natural and cultural heritage that Sabah is famous for,” said Ruben Schrijver, General Manager, Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu.

Integration of Nature and Culture in the Hotel Contemporary Design

Drawing inspiration from Mother Nature, the hotel was designed with two natural elements of Sabah topography in mind with a mix of lush green forests and the rocky mountains, paying homage to Mount Kinabalu, Borneo’s highest mountain. Using tree as the primary design metaphor, Kengo Kuma creatively applies its elements throughout the hotel’s different spaces in this bamboo trees and calming water feature, while the hotel guest room floors depict the vertical lines of a tree trunk, and the rooftop area serves as the crown of the tree offering unobstructed views of the horizon and cityscape, using natural light to create dramatic shadows and colors.

On the guest room floors, signage made of seashell adorns the walls while a pair of sculptured lounge seating signifies both the mountain and the sea. Inspired by the local traditional Kadazan Dusun’s culture of Sabah, vibrant and colorful hand-woven pieces and patterns are on display throughout the guest room floors and corridors.

A Showcase of Sabah’s Rich Cultural Heritage, Local Artisans and Designer Staff Uniform by Melinda Looi

The Lounge in the hotel lobby provides a communal space where travelers and local guests can converse about the day’s adventure and is home to a pop-up artisan corner featuring visually striking artwork. Some of these uniquely commissioned pieces include a hand-carved wood sculpture by Anniketnni Madian located on the wall in the hotel lounge and if one looks closely, you can find the beautiful, rare Rafflesia flower in bloom within the sculpture. Another stunning piece which can be found on the gallery wall in ON22 Restaurant depicts the natural life of the valley. This delicate butterfly framed paper cuts and prints on fine art paper were made of natural materials by the talented Raku Inoue. Guests can also marvel at the work of art by Agnes Lau featuring ceramics on wood panels in the lift lobby, and abstract wall images representing Mount Kinabalu, designed by Regev Amrani. individual, from hotel engineers to front office staff. To deliver this bold concept, the hotel has partnered with well- known local designer, Melinda Looi, to develop unique designs to match the brand. The uniforms are paired with vibrant accessories from Happy Plastics Borneo made of upcycled plastic materials to promote sustainability in fashion.

“The brand philosophy of Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu and the natural beauty of Sabah inspired me to come up with the design of the hotel staff uniform that reflects the lifestyle brand but also for the individuals wearing them to feel proud and inspired. I need to ensure that the design captures the essence of Borneo but at the same time making it practical so that the staff can stay fresh and comfortable all day long,” said Melinda Looi, who was also a recipient of Malaysia Young Designer Award when she first started many years ago.

To continue building interaction and connection with the local culture, the hotel has also cleverly used creative art works such as the fun colorful coasters, as conversation starters in the hotel’s restaurants and bar. Created by local artist, Binjai, the coasters provide fun insights about Sabah. By the end of a meal, guests will be saying “Moginum” (in Kadazandusun, this term indicates drinking or alcohol drinking session) every time they have a drink or satisfy their curious taste buds with the sweet and creamy “Tarap” (a fruit native to Borneo - its sweet and creamy taste makes it one of the most delicious tropical fruits in Southeast Asia. Some call it “Marang”, cousins to Jackfruit and Breadfruit) and Borneo’s wild mango “Bambangan”.

Discover Hidden Gems through the Local Street Arts Scene

For the active wanderers and the curious travelers who seek authentic local experiences, the hotel offers guided street art tours to explore the hidden gems of the neighborhood. Curated by a resident of Kota Kinabalu himself, Jared Abdul Rahman, travelers and local guests can listen to the real stories and inspiration behind a collection of iconic works of street art from raw, organic graffiti to curated, commissioned murals, through this 60-minute walking tour. Highlights include an interpretative piece on the environment named “Vanishing Wall” (2019) by East Tribe, a collaborative work under the creative leadership of Kenji Chai, and a more understated piece linking to the area’s gentrification titled “Auntie” (2019) by Akid One.

For more information, please visit www.hyattcentrickotakinabalu. com or call +60154 874 1234.

Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu also took a step further by making the hotel staff uniform a conversation piece with striking and fun design that expresses the different role and movement of each feature building a team within a team

With a theme of Teamwork for this month’s issue of Breeze, we got the chance to sit down with the “Jalan Jalan Cari Makan” Sales Team from Boon Siew Honda. Individuals within the sales staff took the initiative to form a focused marketing group. Their objective was to take their sales efforts to the next level. They worked out the respective roles for each of the members and set targets and objectives for the team to meet on a monthly basis. They then gathered input from all the members to formulate strategies on which was the best way (for a specific month) to hit their targets and achieve their milestones. Bear in mind that this was not a directive pushed down onto them by their Management, but was done on their own initiative. In the beginning, when the idea was discussed, the offer was open to everyone doing sales, however only six of them shared a common vision and formed this team within a team to take things to the next level.

In today’s world that is dominated by the importance of social media, instant gratification and short-term goals mean it is not always easy to put a group together with a commonality that serves a long-term target. These six individuals decided to use their strengths and individuality to benefit them as a team. Once they had their vision and mission established, they decided to keep this team focused and built themselves up in an exclusive “family like” environment.

This group of “Sales Gurus” have created opportunities for sales from various traditional and non-traditional methodologies. They have used their social media accounts, pooled their own funds to advertise here in Breeze Magazine and knowing how the Kota Kinabalu market is, they also heavily rely on mini road shows and “pop up” events at various restaurants during lunch hours. Through the Breeze network of clients, they have even been invited to be part of a new restaurant launching event as far as Kota Belud. All this and more to not necessarily make onthe-spot sales, but to instead generate leads and build on their customer relationship program.

The company itself has recognized this team’s initiative and supports them as long as they are productive for the company. The top management has been impressed with their specialized methods and has even joined them on their events outside of the dealership to see first-hand how they are developing their market share. We even learnt that the National Brand Management team has used them as a point of reference on what a team can achieve if a common goal is set.

As this team is developing new strategies on a regular basis, they have also had to consider how their team’s activities also fall in line and do not go against the brand (Honda) and the company’s (Boon Siew) operating guidelines. It seems to us that by doing this, they might be able to replicate their strategy with other products should different industries be interested to emulate them.

One of the aspects that they take into consideration in their planning is the ethnic and social diversity of Sabah. Whomever is strong in a certain aspect is pushed to the forefront to represent the team. There seems to be less top to bottom hierarchy and more rotational or circular representation from this group. Positivity is a key factor for them and they don’t see anyone in the team having a weakness that would bring them down, only that team member’s strength that needs to be developed or maximized.

Another aspect that they all feel is crucial for them as a team is enjoying the rewards of their success together. They believe in a “work hard, play hard” ideology and they feel that the Sabah lifestyle is paramount as the foundation for this team working as well as it does.

by Mohammad Iskandar