What happens when architects and designers cross over design and construction, and become owners of the hotels themselves?
Soo K Chan,
award-winning architect and principal, SCDA Architects, Singapore, and owner, Alila Villas Soori, Bali
What made you want to own hotels?
I wanted to be able to design a hotel holistically and have a part in crafting the guest experience. I also enjoy hospitality, as it encompasses lifestyle aspects.
In designing Alila Villas Soori, what were your main considerations?
The design had to have a strong sense of place, be sustainable environmentally and socially, and consistent in its language – from the architecture, landscape, interiors and down to the details.
Alila Villas Soori, Bali
What are the pros and cons of designing a hotel you own than one that is commissioned?
With your own hotel, it is more intense as you are fully responsible for the product. The level of engagement is different as you are involved in the management and financial aspects of the project.
Pros: Quicker decision-making, more design control, more consistent design language.
Cons: You have to oversee the budget and financial aspects of the project.
What’s your view on hotel design and how should it evolve?
There needs to be a new typology for hotel design, as the large chains are creating too many sub-brands and it is becoming harder to create a differentiation.
The green agenda and the luxury idea also need to be repositioned.
Is it hard to innovate the villa product?
It is getting to a point where the villa product has become archetypical. For example, one expects a private pool and an outdoor shower if it is in the tropics. But it has become formulaic as more and more large chain hotel brands and city hotel brands roll out villa products.
What do hoteliers need to understand about architects, and vice versa?
Architects need to understand hotel operations, including back-of-the-house and sales and marketing of the product.
They also need to understand the brand ethos of different operators and to have stayed at many hotels to get a clearer understanding of hospitality.
Ideally, they need to be able to design the interiors as well.
Hoteliers need to give experienced architects some room to rethink the guest experience rather than merely coming up with standard hotel operating manuals – they should have a strong design director that can articulate the brand design direction.
How has owning Alila Villas Soori changed your perspectives of hotels?
I understand better how a brand can push its brand ethos even though the benefits are more for the brand than the owner. That there are features that are necessary while others that can be scaled back without compromising the experience.
That as brands proliferate, many of the brand’s design managers are fairly junior architects with hotel experience.
What’s your pick of the dream places in Asia to build a hotel?
Bali, Bhutan and the Maldives because of their strong and distinctive locale and culture.
Will you own and build more hotels?
I would not discount that. I’m currently developing Soori High Line in New York, a serviced condominium with some F&B (www.soorihighlineny.com).
(Alila Villas Soori is the first hotel which Chan owns. The hotel is managed by Alila and the name Soori combines his first name, Soo, and his wife’s Javanese name, Sri.)
Melanie Hall,
designer and owner, Luna2 Private Hotel and Luna2 Studios, Bali
What made you want to own hotels?
I have always had a passion for design, and was very much inspired by my father, Alan Chambers, who was an architect in the 50s and 60s. He instilled in me a love of modernist architecture and interiors. I am afflicted with his eye for design and love of high-end travel. Additionally, I worked in fashion for many years, lastly as head of creative for cK Calvin Klein for South-east Asia. To me, fashion, food, architecture, interiors are all co-dependent, so entering the hotel business is a natural progression.
Tell me about your hotels.
Several years ago, while living in Jakarta, I identified a niche for jetsetters seeking more privacy and a higher level of personal service than perhaps a more regular five-star hotel. This led me to create Luna2 Private Hotel in Seminyak in 2007, which offers the super-star service of an exclusive hotel with the intimacy of a private home. This exclusive-use five-bedroom property comes with a complement of 25 staff.
Luna2 Studios is our second property, located directly adjacent to Luna2 Private Hotel. Launched in April, this intimate yet vibrant ‘studiotel’ has 14 open-plan studios.
From these starting points, Luna2 will expand first regionally, then globally. On the drawing board, with land purchased and concept design underway, are properties in Phuket, Niseko and Lombok.
In addition, we are shortly launching the Luna2 Club, our invitation-only private members club (the first in Bali) for a niche group of like-minded lunatics!
Luna2 Private Hotel, Bali
In designing Luna2, what were your main considerations?
The Luna2 collection blends nostalgia, the great modernism of the past, with futurism (innovation, gadgets, high-tech stuff) and touches of fun that make you giggle. Life is not to be taken too seriously after all!
Bali is a true melting pot of creativity, with many of the villas and hotels incorporating the ubiquitous “modern-Bali” approach to design. My own passion and creative vision perhaps contrast the Bali norm. I refer to my design style as ‘funked-up modernism’.
What are the pros and cons of designing a hotel you own than one that is commissioned?
I get to do it my way and my own vision. I make my own mistakes, and learn from them for the next project. The pride and gratification you get from building your very own hotel from scratch is incredible.
The downsides are: it’s a massive uphill battle; it’s hugely costly and you lose sleep in the process. But I wouldn’t change a thing – it’s onwards and upwards from here.
My husband is the financial wizard and believes he is backing a good horse!
What’s your view on hotel design and how should it evolve?
Many design-savvy entrepreneurs are ‘giving it a go’, it seems. Larger chains are rolling out more properties, but can be quite conformist. I hope to start seeing more privately-owned hotel groups which remain true to their vision.
Hotels need to raise the bar in design, personal service and intimacy. Well-heeled world travellers expect more from their experience and, most of all, they need personal attention, in a more intimate environment, with like-minded clientele. Age is no longer as relevant. Attitude is the determining factor.
What do hoteliers need to understand about architects, and vice versa?
Many architects want to produce a world-beating design to gain acclaim, but that may not be the most practical solution for the hotelier. The two of them must sing from the same hymn sheet throughout the design process.
Joerg Drechsel,
designer and owner, The Malabar House, Fort Cochin, Kerala
What made you want to own hotels?
I love the idea of creating a seamless product including architecture, interiors, design, graphics and the way a place functions. It is more than just business; it is a passion to create guest experiences, which inspire all senses.
In designing The Malabar House, what were your main considerations?
The Malabar House has to tell you where you are. The building, interiors and art tell the story of Fort Cochin with 500 years of culture and history. The food makes you taste where you are, the garden puts you in the tropics and the service reflects the hospitality of the host community.
What are the pros and cons of designing a hotel you own than one that is commissioned?
You realise your own vision when designing something you own. A commissioned work is based on a brief, and, if successful, is a re-interpretation of your vision.
The pro is a consistent design language, from the layout to the smallest detail; the con is that you are on your own and might miss out on a productive and creative development dialogue.
What’s your view of boutique hotels and how should they evolve?
The concept of the boutique hotel has developed global stereotypes; its design language becomes more and more identical and exchangeable. We do need a dialogue with the local culture, its art and craft traditions; and we must be climate sensitive. This process acts as a filter. The positive result reflects the rich fabric of cultural diversity in a contemporary setting.
Is it hard to innovate heritage hotels?
It is a balancing act. How to preserve, where to modernise? How to insert modern amenities and comforts without killing the ambience and feel of the place? How to communicate the layers of history? You have to tell a story as a tactile experience, yet avoid gimmicks, which are out of fashion in a few years down the line.
What is your pick of the dream places in Asia to build a hotel?
What intrigues me is to create hotel without walls and fences, an infrastructure which is interwoven in the life and living of the local community, where the guest experiences merge with the life of the host community. We worked on this concept in a mountain village in Oman; unfortunately it did not happen. Working in a regional context I would love to do the same in a beach-facing village in Kerala.
What do hoteliers need to understand about architects, and vice versa?
I think the root issue is not different from any other relationship between an architect and owner. The architect can depict his design and visualise the structure before it becomes a reality. The owner has a perception created with the help of 3D presentations or models. He wants changes once the building materialises and becomes real. The architect has to have the flexibility to enter into a dialogue and do modifications. It is a learning process: form follows function or function follows form? Ideally it becomes a perfect function in a perfect form.
What do you like about building hotels?
A guest comes to a hotel with all he needs in his bag except his social network. We have to tell him our story about the place, create a platform of social interaction with staff and others; it is a wonderful challenge to create a setting for genuine hospitality.
Will you own and build more hotels?
Yes, we are planning a museum hotel on a peninsula in a lake in South Kerala. The Malabar House was our first hotel, also the first Relais & Chateaux in India. We also own Purity at Lake Vembanad, which is undergoing an extension and will re-open in August as an Ayurveda-focused resort.
Eugene Yeh,
designer and owner, Cabochon Hotel, Bangkok
What made you want to own hotels?
My interior design background and my passion for travel.
In designing Cabochon Hotel, what were your main considerations?|
A building could be just a building, but a building with a story or theme is more interesting especially if it’s a boutique hotel. Thus, when I was designing Cabochon, the story has been considered all the way from concept, architecture, interior and decor.
What are the pros and cons of designing a hotel you own than one that is commissioned?
When designing for clients, I actually care more about their requests, budgets, etc, but when it’s for myself, you know, I’m freer about everything!
What’s your view of hotel design and how should it evolve?
Creating some character for your hotel has become more important than ever.
Is it hard to innovate the boutique hotel product?
Not really, but you must have the right idea of what a boutique hotel is.
What’s your pick of the dream places to build a hotel in Asia?
Bangkok.
What do hoteliers need to understand about architects, and vice versa?
If I may say so, I don’t think hoteliers need too much architectural knowledge – they need the right architect, right interior designer and right management team.
Will you own and build more hotels?
Yes, if I have the chance. The first hotel I owned – and where I also did the concept, architecture, interior and decor – was The Eugenia, but as an interior designer, I’ve also designed many hotels such as the Taipei World Trade Center Members’ Club and the standard rooms for Regent Taipei.
