Fuse Sector Focus - Hotels

hotels

why fuse?

A hands-on approach with Director involvement from start to finish of every project The world has changed since the global financial crisis of 2007/8 and Clients are looking for consultants whose principals are genuinely hands-on. They need designers to be able to react quickly and want their design fees to pay for high quality service, not huge overheads. Fuse was established in 2010 to meet those needs: with studios in Manchester and Leeds providing a balanced skill set of Interior Design and Architecture expertise.

Led by four Directors, with a combined experience of over 70 years in the industry, they previously managed teams within one of the UK’s largest design consultancies. As such, the Directors have proven experience delivering across most market sectors: from small, beautifully-crafted restaurant projects, to a new hotel or the designing of large regenerative masterplans.

At Fuse we are committed to providing exemplary Client service and one of our Directors Simon Clarke, Mike Harris, David Matthews and Scott Ryalls is involved on every project, from concept to completion. Working with Clients in multiple time zones over many years has taught us that always being available is one of the most valuable services we can provide to a Client.

In construction, delays cost money and when we claim to be “an agile and responsive team,” we mean to be just that. We strongly believe in working collaboratively and positively with our Clients and we know how to successfully manage design teams to deliver within cost and time parameters.

We also take our commitment to the environment seriously. Our team has been working on BREEAM Excellent rated buildings since the 1990’s and our interiors projects have won praise for their practical application of sustainability principles.

Fuse holds joint accreditation under ISO:9001 and ISO:14001, Quality Assurance and Environmental Management systems respectively.

This and cover photograph © Copyright careyjones

who we are A small design studio providing huge experience with enthusiasm and genuine expertise Fuse is a design studio with the skills and experience to look after any part of your project. Whether it is the refurbishment of an existing hotel or the roll-out of an established restaurant brand, the team has all the necessary experience to ensure success.

We work for global players Hard Rock International and SMG Europe, for UK developers such as ASK Developments and Commercial Estates Group and for institutions like the University of Leeds.

We provide the experience of designing and delivering projects in the UK, Middle East, USA and across Continental Europe.

Green indicates countries where projects have been designed by one of the Fuse directors

we’re different

A unique proposition – hotel architecture and interior design seamlessly integrated When Fuse was formed, we brought together a group of talented individuals: architects and interior designers with a proven track record in hotel design, from small boutique hotels to resort scale developments. We do not have separate architectural and interiors teams, the two disciplines work together – all of the time.

Typically within the industry, hotels are designed by architects and the interior designer is added to the team after the major design decisions have already been made. This approach fails to take advantage of the many benefits that a good interior designer can bring to a project during the early stages, not least his contribution to an economic and imaginative operational layout. Our integrated team does not miss these opportunities.

Our interior designers have exemplary space planning skills so they are able to make a significant contribution to design quality from the outset of our hotel projects Our Clients can be assured that their hotel will not only be visually stunning but also planned to be as operationally efficient as possible - and cost-effective to build.

Our team also has huge experience in the design of the individual profit centres within hotels, including food and beverage operations and health and fitness facilities. Our past and present Clients include international brands such as Hard Rock International and Esporta, so we bring genuine expertise to the table.

We also work with a wonderful group of partner engineers, architects, surveyors and project managers throughout Europe and can arrange project delivery in French, Flemish, German, Catalan, Spanish and Italian within our existing professional network.

This brochure illustrates some of the projects that the Fuse team has completed in recent years. Because Fuse is a relatively new practice, most of these were undertaken when our team members were with previous practices but we will be updating with new Fuse projects in due course.

what we do We create hotels that work at every level – cost effective, operationally efficient, visually spectacular Feasibility Studies

Food and Beverage

Fuse can undertake feasibility studies to cover a number of different scenarios. Our designers can establish the feasibility of a conversion of an existing building to new hotel use. Or we can establish whether a required number of hotel keys can be accommodated on a given site or masterplan a hotel site as part of a larger mixed use development.

We are presently working on restaurant projects in half a dozen European countries and we have delivered food and beverage projects in the USA too.

We have developed an industry-leading understanding of how to design spectacular and profitable restaurants.

Space Planning

We understand the importance of flexibility, the acoustic and technological requirements and the essential but invisible integration with back of house areas that lay behind successful conference and function areas.

Well executed space planning can reduce the floorplate sizes and even reduce structural costs for the hotel developer. It also makes the hotel more efficient operationally and so can have equally beneficial effects on profitability for the hotel operator.

Guestroom Design From highly space-efficient, limited service hotel rooms through to luxury suites for operators like Orient Express, our designers have a proven track record of designing great hotel rooms.

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Conference and Function

Spa and Fitness Having designed dozens of health clubs and spas for industry leaders such as Virgin and Esporta, our designers have a wealth of specialist experience.

FF&E Selection and Procurement We have the experience and flair to select and procure all your hotel FF&E needs, both within the UK and overseas.

feasibility studies

Our dual skill sets of interior design and architecture are of particular benefit during the feasibility stages of a hotel project – especially for those new hotels which are conversions of existing buildings that originally had another use altogether.

For new-build projects in urban environments, we work with rights of light surveyors to identify the maximum buildable envelope so as to achieve the highest possible key count within the site.

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Left: feasibility study to convert the 18th Century Vanburgh-designed Pyramid Gatehouse at Castle Howard into a unique and exclusive boutique hotel.

Top right: Site analysis for the podium level of a new resort scale hotel. Bottom right: Part of a study to establish whether a landmark, listed building was suitable for a new use use as a 5 star hotel.

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Intelligent space planning is the key to an operationally efficient hotel and a cost-effective build.

Separation of customer and staff circulation, optimising back of house spaces and their inter-relationships, minimising area lost to circulation routes – these are all fundamental to a successful layout. Because our interior designers and architects work together from day one, Fuse is able to ensure that the building design is never achieved at the cost of an imperfect layout.

Above: An initial space planning exercise by David Matthews for the mezzanine level in the podium of a 750 key hotel tower forming part of a major new resort hotel complex on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. The proposal also included full conference facilities, a theatre, nightclub and casino as well as an extensive spa.

space planning

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Our interior designers have worked on the full range of guestroom offers: from limited service hotels up to luxury suites for Orient Express based on the Pullman designs for the famous train. Whatever the price point, scrupulous attention to detail is essential. The slightest error can be a source of annoyance for years to guest and operator alike.

Images shown here are of standard bedroom, a suite and guest corridor at the Casa Hotel, Chesterfield. Š Copyright careyjones

The Casa Hotel… a completely new hotel brand Bradbury Hall Developments’ original brief to Mike Harris and David Matthews was to create a new hotel brand in their ‘home town’ that would serve visitors to Chesterfield and the nearby Peak District as well as cater to local business users. In addition, the Client’s main business, the drink manufacturing company Global Brands, required a new headquarters to act as a base for its international business.

The solution is the recently completed Casa hotel and office development.

Casa Hotel’s facilities include one hundred guest bedrooms, an a la carte restaurant, bars, conference and wedding facilities.

Sitting atop the hotel is Global Brands 20,000 sq.ft headquarters; which enjoys unrivalled views out over the town and surrounding countryside. The offices have been designed with flexibility in mind to allow potential future expansion of the hotel. © Copyright careyjones

food&beverage BarCa at the Casa Hotel, Chesterfield © copyright careyjones

The Fuse team has an enormous amount of experience in food and beverage design.

Our designers have worked for celebrity Chefs (Wolfgang Puck, Luke Palladino and Gary Rhodes) and global restaurant operators such as Hard Rock International.

We have worked throughout the UK, across Europe and extensively in the United States.

We have worked with food service consultants as far afield as Florida and New York and have a deep understanding of food handling and storage, kitchen design, customer flows, lighting, acoustics and all other aspects of this highly specialised area.

We are genuine experts in restaurant design.

The Cocina Restaurant at the Casa Hotel, Chesterfield © copyright careyjones

The Bragozzo Restaurant, Fort Lauderdale, Florida for celebrity chef Luke Palladino © copyright careyjones

food&beverage We have completed all manner of food and beverage projects: from self service buffet restaurants to high-end fine dining establishments with budgets from ÂŁ250,000 to ÂŁ7.5m.

Hard Rock Cafe, Grande Place, Brussels

As well as its work in the UK, the Fuse team has completed new restaurant and restaurant remodeling projects in Italy, France, Belgium and Spain.

Further are underway in Holland and Austria Due to the fundamental importance of lighting to the success of all dining areas, Fuse can provide the lighting design as part of its services for all its design projects, including the specification & programming of the lighting control systems, which allow us to deliver the ambience conceived in the original concept.

Hard Rock Cafe, Piazza della Repubblica, Florence

The Cocina Restaurant at the Casa Hotel in Chesterfield has to change over the course of each day. It is three restaurants in one.

In the morning, Cocina acts as the main breakfast restaurant for the hotel. The 95 cover restaurant has a large breakfast buffet counter along one edge which disappears completely for the rest of the day, using the simple device of layers of voile curtain that close over the area.

At lunchtime, the restaurant becomes the ideal venue for business lunches and in the evening, it transforms once again into a fine dining restaurant.

The kitchen has an open pass, and can also be seen by the visitor through a large window in the enclosing wall.

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Leisure offers are an increasingly important component of hotel design. Fuse has enormous experience in this specialised area.

The projects on this page are part of David Matthews’ extensive portfolio in the sector. Right: Concept for the Spa at the luxury apart-hotel, Crispin House, in Leeds. Below left: Esporta Health and Fitness Clubs at Edinburgh and Chiswick Park, London. David also completed Esporta projects, ranging in size from 25,000sqft to 140,000sqft in Wolverhampton, Sheffield, Leeds, Hamilton, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Below right: The Virgin Living River Therapies Spa in Oxford Street, London, the flagship spa developed for Virgin Cosmetics. David was also responsible for the spas attached to some Virgin Active Health Clubs, including Leeds and Preston.

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spa&fitness

Dakota Forth Bridge, Edinburgh‌ The Darth Vader of the hotel world The Dakota Hotel is located to the East of Edinburgh city centre, at a highly prominent position on the southern approach to the Forth Road Bridge.

The hotel was a catalyst for regeneration of the area and with its distinctive appearance, has become a local landmark in its own right.

Whilst at careyjones, Mike Harris was the director responsible for the delivery of the 62,000sqft hotel which has a very strong rectilinear form. It is clad almost entirely in polished black ceramic granite and heavily tinted curtain walling, reflecting the strong brand identity. Internally, the hotel has 132 guest rooms, bar, brasserie, gym and conference/meeting facilities.

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conference Flexibility is the key to successful conference and function provision.

The hotel operator has to be able to ‘sweat the asset’ for as many hours as possible, every day.

Layout, service from back of house, lighting, acoustics, AV and MEP installations must all adapt – sometimes several times in a single day. They must perform as well for a sales conference as they do for a wedding reception. At Fuse, our designers have an in-depth understanding of all these specialisms and their seamless coordination as part of a detailed hotel design.

Above: Conference room at the Brooklands Hotel, Surrey (© careyjones). Above left: One of the smaller conference rooms at the Casa Hotel and two early SketchUp model views of the main conference and banqueting suite (© careyjones). Left: corporate suite designed by Fuse as part of its interior design commission at the recently completed First Direct Arena in Leeds.

Brooklands Hotel, Surrey… built on the site of the historic racetrack Mike Harris was the Director responsible from concept to detail design for this stunning luxury hotel on the site of the historic Brooklands motor racing circuit in Surrey. The hotel contains 120 guest rooms, spa, bar, brasserie restaurant and a meeting / conference suite.

The hotel is located on the line of the track’s original finishing straight and references to this unique setting are made within the hotel’s design, including the main entrance location.

The building’s distinctive modernist form also reflects the architectural language of the heyday of the racing circuit.

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sustainability At Fuse, we like to think that we adopt a common-sense approach to sustainable design and that this remains at the top of our agenda through every stage of a project and particularly so at the outset. This approach was used to excellent effect at the Casa Hotel in Chesterfield, where a series of key decisions taken at the very beginning of the design process resulted in major energy savings for the Client.

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Firstly, the building was positioned on the site in a North-South orientation, presenting the smallest possible elevation to the midday sun. The building was then ‘fractured’ horizontally such that the upper floors of the building were ‘slid’ in a northerly direction creating terraces which enjoyed the full benefit of the southerly aspect.

This allowed the more modest heat gains to the east and west elevations during the early morning and evening to be offset by moving heat from east to west, or vice-versa. So, in the morning, cooler air from the shaded west elevation is moved to the warmer east elevation. The warm air on the east side is moved to the cooler west. In the late afternoon or evening, the air flow is reversed.

The large glazing areas within the top two floors (the Client’s own offices located on top of the hotel beneath) were deeply recessed to provide solar shading. The hotel and offices were then heated/cooled using a high efficiency air source heat pump system with air variable refrigerant flow technology.

These simple but highly effective measures, alongside the use of energy efficient plant and control systems in a concrete framed building of high thermal mass, located on a remediated brown-field site, all combined to deliver a truly sustainable building with no cost premium and long term savings on energy usage.

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Innovative solar shading creates a dramatic and cost effective hotel facade

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The Premier In in Bury was designed by the careyjones team led by Simon Clarke as part of the Knowsley Place Development for Ask Developments. Five identical bedroom floors provide 115 keys above a ground floor housing the reception, bar, café and restaurant and supporting back of house areas. The facades feature these dramatic window surrounds; which as well as making a strong architectural statement, provide solar shading and so help reduce the running costs of the hotel.

David Matthews Director david.matthews@fuse-studios.com David’s very first project after qualification was a hotel refurbishment for Venice-Simplon-Orient Express when he worked closely with interior designer, Gérard Gallet. Paris-based Gallet had been responsible for the painstaking restoration of the world famous train.

Together, they created an interior based on some of Pullman’s original designs for the train including bespoke furniture and lighting fixtures. For David, it was the beginning of his love of hotel interiors.

Since then, David has worked on numerous hotel projects, from boutique conversions up to the space planning of resort scale casino-hotel developments in the USA. He has also established a reputation as an accomplished restaurant designer: his international client list including Hard Rock International. Most recently, David worked with Scott and Mike on the hugely successful Casa Hotel in Chesterfield.

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© Copyright Venice-Simplon-Orient Express

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Mike Harris Director mike.harris@fuse-studios.com © Copyright careyjones

Mike developed his expertise in hotel design primarily during his time at careyjones architects. Whilst there he was responsible for the design and delivery of most of the hotel projects undertaken by the practice and led their specialist hotel team.

Mike has worked across the full spectrum of hotel design, from high-end luxury to brands offering limited service.

Included within Mike’s portfolio is the Dakota Hotel Forth Bridge, Edinburgh: a cool, black ceramic granite clad 132 key hotel, designed for highly regarded hotelier, Ken McCulloch. Mike also worked with Ken during the design of the iconic, neo-modernist Brooklands Hotel in Weybridge.

More recently Mike led the architectural team for the design of the Casa Hotel in Chesterfield.

Currently on Mike’s “drawing board” is a new conference hotel in Newcastle.

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Fuse Studios Limited: Calls Wharf, 2 The Calls, Leeds, LS2 7JU and Barton Arcade, Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BH.

www.fuse-studios.com