Hotel Design

    DESIGN POD Karen Stonely

    Episode 25: capturing a deeper sense of wellness (Karen Stonely)

     1024 640 Hamish Kilburn
    By:
    0
    Episode 25: capturing a deeper sense of wellness (Karen Stonely)

    In episode 25 of DESIGN POD, sponsored by Minotti London, Editor Hamish Kilburn, host of the podcast for design and architecture enthusiasts, meets Karen Stonely, Co-Founder of SPAN Architecture, to understand how she and her team capture wellness and wellbeing in design and architecture…

    DESIGN POD Karen Stonely

    Meet Karen Stonely, an artist, designer, architect and the Co-Founder of SPAN Architecture, a New York-based studio that aims to create wellness and wellbeing experiences in all landscapes.

    This episode of DESIGN POD, sponsored by Minotti London, explores wellness in design through unconventional materiality, evoking unconventional sense of place and calling out ‘wellwashing’ in hotel and hospitality design. To do this, Kilburn understand’s Stonely’s unique approach to designing projects. “We’re looking at getting the most out of a place and an experience,” Stonely explains. “We want our design work to be a gift of the place that heightens your experience.”

    One project, in particular, that cleverly captures a new and perhaps surprising meaning of wellness in its location, Times Square in Manhattan, is Hyatt Centric Times Square; a project that is best described as ‘nature revealed in neon’. One of the biggest challenges for the team at SPAN Architecture was to take natural forms – elements from the parks of New York City (lungs of the city) back to their fractured essence – and rethink how they could become geometricised in an urban format. Working in a holistic and layered manner, soon strategies emerged that contributed to the one-off spatial experiences; an adaptation of nature lying between the natural and artificial.

    The other case study explored in the episode is August Moon, a completely different hospitality experience, in contrast, that is expressed as a ‘secret escape from the city’; a private waterfront retreat that overlooks Maine’s Western Bay. Named by her after the Chinese mid-autumn harvest festival, the two original structures – a separate glass teahouse and a small cottage with pool – were designed by the architect, Robert Patterson in the 1960s.

    For the restoration and new builds, the studio sought to find original materials used by Patterson, discovering original design documents at the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, which further informed the concepts.

    The new residence is situated to the north where two ridges come together. It takes its cues from the existing rocks, waterfront, trees and topography of the site, paying homage to the existing Patterson cottage. The building sits in a saddle in the landscape beyond the garden ridge that separates the Pool Pavilion and Guest House from the Main House. Stonely explains on the podcast how the project’s architectural structure ‘deceives the eyes’, and walks Kilburn through the materials and forms she explored to create this jewel.

    Other episodes in the archive that touch on wellness in design include Kilburn’s interviews with Ivaylo Lefterov, Holly Hallam, Jo Littlefair, Marie Soliman and Rachel Hoolahan.

    Main image credit: DESIGN POD

    Holly Hallam DESIGN POD

    Episode 21: a new era of lifestyle in design (Holly Hallam)

     1024 640 Hamish Kilburn
    By:
    0
    Episode 21: a new era of lifestyle in design (Holly Hallam)

    In episode 21 of DESIGN POD, Editor Hamish Kilburn gets comfortable on the Minotti London sofa with Holly Hallam, Managing Director of Design LSM, to discuss why lifestyle hospitality and hotel design is moving into a new era…

    Holly Hallam DESIGN POD

    Prepare to be inspired. Holly Hallam is a rare breed of an interior designer – she and her team at Design LSM unapologetically don’t quite fit the mold. With the studio based outside of London, in Brighton, Design LSM turn what could be considered a weakness by not being centrally based into its greatest strength – there’s nothing quite like being inspired by crisp sea air. In addition, Hallam who has no formal training as such, but learned from the sidelines by watching her interior designer father, is able to inject a new layer into the studio and indeed the wider arena. With her strong background in marketing and branding, Hallam understands the need for a 360-degree mindset in the modern hotel design scene.

    Listen to the full episode below:

    Utilising this thinking, Hallam and her team have worked for brands including, but not limited to, The Alchemist, Gaucho, Curio by Hilton and Kiss The Hippo.

    In episode 21 of DESIGN POD, sponsored by Minotti London, Hallam joined Editor Hamish Kilburn on the DESIGN POD sofa to discuss a new era of lifestyle. During the interview, which naturally led from a previous episode where Kilburn and designer Jo Littlefair explored ‘a new era of luxury‘, Hallam highlighted key projects that she believed helped to pivot lifestyle in design and hospitality into a new lane.

    Main image credit: Hotel Designs/DESIGN POD