HYDE PARK

SPECIAL REPORT: HYDE PARK

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Chic hotel with an awesome view

By Bev Hermanson

Looking over at the latest of Southern Sun’s hotels from the plush residences of Hyde Park, one of Johannesburg’s most elite suburbs, you could be forgiven if you assumed that there was always a hotel perched on the rise, at the intersection of William Nicol Drive and Jan Smuts Avenue. It took Southern Sun, the operators, and Hyprop, the owners of the property, some considerable time to reach this historic point. Each celebrating coincidentally their 40th anniversary this year, it seems the relationship is entirely appropriate.

The Southern Sun Hyde Park Hotel is remarkable, not only for its accommodation offering and its spectacular

270° views of the northern and western suburbs of Johannesburg, but structurally, it is a triumph in its engineering and design implementation. Set atop the 7-storey parkade of the Hyde Park Shopping Centre, the hotel comprises 132 suites, a rooftop gym, boardrooms and conference facilities, two lounges, an exclusive whiskey bar, an international restaurant, as well as a pool and outdoor terrace. Entering at the lower street level from basement parking, visitors are whisked eight floors up to where it’s already becoming the place to see and be seen by Johannesburg’s elite.

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Keeping it light The first phase of the R180-million building was hardly noticeable as it involved the strengthening of the foundations and the support columns of the Parkade. The challenge to the designers was to keep the structural elements of the hotel as light as possible. Room sizes were also restricted to what the columns beneath could support, providing plenty of challenges to the interior designers.

The walls are mainly 165mm drywall partitioning that have an internal layer of acoustic thermal insulation, which is a fairly new concept for construction here in South Africa.

“We had to come up with walling that would equal or exceed the decibel rating of a double brick wall with cement plaster on both sides, but without the weight,” explains Carl Bartleman of Saint Gobain. “We chose a 15mm fire rated gypsum board which we used as a double layer on each side of 102mm cavitylite batt insulation. This gave us both sound and thermal insulation.”

In addition to the weight reduction, the tailor made dry walling saved a great deal of space overall, which was especially important in determining the layout of the bedrooms. For the bathrooms, the inner layer of the walls was replaced with a moisture resistant gypsum board and sliding doors were easily added to fit between separated drywalls, to save space. Special loadbearing upright studs were used for door frames and in places where items would be attached to the walls, such as TVs, toilets and the like.

“We had a foreman representing Saint Gobain on site to project manage the installation. This was important as our 10 year SpecSure guarantee requires that the installation has to be correctly specified and supervised from start to finish.”

The walls have been given substance through the application of specialised cladding and wall papering so, to the eye, the structures look pretty solid. Sympathetic to the acoustic requirements of the hotel, the interior designers additionally sourced carpeting that has a highdensity foam backing that is excellent for absorbing sound.

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Internationally contemporary It was decided not to do the predictable ‘ethnic’ thing for this hotel, but rather expand on the locality, which implies elements of sophistication, elegance and an internationally contemporary approach to the style and décor. The interior designers chosen to tackle the task were Source Interior Brand Architects from Cape Town, with the result that many of the furnishings and finishes were brought up from the Mother City to grace the City of Gold’s latest jewel.

“We were approached by Southern Sun and Hyprop to conceive a unique guest experience, which in itself is a great honour,” adds Jeremy Stewart, creative director from Source. “The experience is a fusion of modern and classic influences, combined with a sense of locale.”

“Part of the success from Source’s point of view was applying our design ethos from interior architecture and design, right through to textile design, styling, music and staff uniforms, enabling us to control the entire 3-dimensional guest experience, which is key to the ultimate success of any hospitality project.”

The public spaces had to have character at all times of the day and night and so the décor theme, rather than being exotic or cheesy, is simply an expression of rhythm and repetition. The colour palette is muted, punctuated only by occasional splashes of vivid hues.

Textures are either physical, such as the Duraglass wallpaper that is thickly ‘woven’ and, as it turns out, designed to take paint, or merely visual. Rhythm is achieved through a series of contrasts – black and white, hard and shiny surfaces punctuated by textures, and light and dark spaces.

In the main lounge, a selection of shades from Tom Dixon’s Beat collection were used for the lighting.

“Tom Dixon is a British lighting and furniture design and manufacturing company that we represent here in South Africa. Tom Dixon himself has won awards worldwide for his unique designs and we fell in love

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with his design and his brand.” says Kate Liebenberg, managing director of Crema Design. “The Beat Light is made from hand beaten brass using the rapidly vanishing skills from Indian master craftsmen. Once made, the beaten brass ages creating a patina black

external surface in contrast to the warm golden interior of the shades.” The contrast of the smooth internal glow with the external texture of the fittings adds an extra element of interest to this public space.

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Showing the way Capitalising on the views, the architects have opted for as much transparency as possible. Floor to ceiling glass walls grace the restaurant and lounge areas.

The pool terrace is bordered by glass balustrades, so that the rim flow pool looks as though it’s stretching into eternity.

The Whiskey Lounge and the Biche Restaurant even have liquor enclosures made entirely of glass. This glassing of the 8th floor, known as the Lifestyle level, not only reduces the need for lighting during the day, it performs a dual function, giving the impression at night that the floors above are floating over the Parkade, as the artificial lighting creates a visual cushion between the two structures.

It has become Southern Sun’s mission to reduce energy consumption in all of their establishments, so with

this hotel, LED lighting and energy saving light bulbs have been used from the outset.

“There’s a specific psychology behind the different colours and intensities of light,” says Mardre Meyer, project designer at Source. “While plants are phototropic, people are photophylic, so in the passages leading to the rooms, we have dimmed the lights and put brighter lighting in each door alcove. This pulls people through the dim spaces towards the light.”

Another part of the dim-light philosophy, explains Bram Joynt of LKA Architects, is that people seem to talk louder when the lighting is bright, but their conversation is more subdued in dim lighting. This is important when considering the acoustics and the fact that most of the walls are the new dry wall acoustic partitioning rather than bricks and mortar. Encouraging people subliminally to make less noise ensures an enhanced feeling of privacy for the guests in their rooms.

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“It’s amazing how disorienting light can be,” continues Mardre. “While you can’t have too much shadow, people do need to have the contrasts of light versus shadow to give them a sense of perspective, otherwise their judgement of distance becomes warped. At the end

of each passage, we have a window covered with a voile curtain, that allows in natural light. This balances the perspective and gives guests a sense of the time of day, so that their experience is not surreal.”

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Breaking the moulds with fabrics Out on the terrace, the designers chose light, modular furniture that can be configured a number of ways. The cushions, covered in bold black and white florals, are all the more exceptional as the materials represent a breakthrough in outdoor fabric treatment, so that the cushions can be left out in the elements without weathering. The rimflow pool, as the focal point of the outdoor terrace, is just deep enough so that one can cool off, while still partaking of liquid refreshments at chest height. It’s all about being smooth and sophisticated – no dive-bombing or Olympic length training, just a quick dip to cool off. Nothing too strenuous.

The indoor Whiskey Lounge looks out over the patio, but has its own air of exclusivity. The occasional chairs are just comfortable enough to stimulate easy conversation without tempting you to fall asleep. The

soft gold vinyl ‘fabric’ is tactile, yet highly durable, great for high traffic uses, yet way more sophisticated than the vinyls of the 70s and 80s. On a raised section to the rear of the lounge, plush couches offer greater comfort for more relaxed gatherings.

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Fine dining Bright and airy, the Biche Restaurant is an Italian restaurant with a twist – somehow a sushi bar has found its way into the formula. This will no doubt become a great hit with the hotel’s international clientele. The furniture is slightly minimalist, the colour palette muted, to allow patrons to concentrate on what’s most important – the cuisine.

The wine closet displays a selection of local and imported wines that could set you back anywhere from R80 to R2500 per bottle.

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Across to business On the same level as the restaurant, lounges and pool terrace, there is also a business centre and a separate wing housing boardrooms and conference facilities.

And to help the busy executive unwind during his stay,

on the top floor there is a gym with weights and cardiovascular training equipment. Again, huge expanses of glass reveal the stunning view of the suburbs, which is given double impact by the large mirrors on the walls.

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Easy sleep An important aspect of the Southern Sun Hyde Park Hotel accommodation management is the access control through the smart key system that also controls the

lighting and air-conditioning in each room to ensure efficient energy consumption.

Although the rooms are modest in size, they nevertheless exude comfort. The modern padded headboards are

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Photos by Anine Scholtz.

covered in high fashion fabrics. The TV unit has enough space so that it can be used as a desk and the bathrooms, while compact, give the illusion of spaciousness, with their frameless showers and backlit mirrors. The chic style is carried through to the public cloackrooms with their similarly demurely mirrors.

In addition to the front entrance to the hotel through its swish revolving door or the alternative of the basement parking access, there’s also a fun ‘back way’ to the Hyde Park Shopping Centre, giving guests a secure playground to explore at their leisure.

From a wide selection of restaurants, cinemas, banks, travel agents, hairdressers and beauty salons, to exquisite fashion boutiques, jewellers and book stores, the Hyde Park Shopping Centre is a destination all its own. With its new hospitality offering in the form of the Southern Sun Hyde Park Hotel, the centre is sure to grow and achieve even greater international acclaim. <

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