Interior Design

    DESIGN POD Alessandro Munge

    Episode 32: transforming spaces (Alessandro Munge)

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    Episode 32: transforming spaces (Alessandro Munge)

    Hot off appearing on Travel By Design, a podcast hosted by Hamish Kilburn and brought to you by Marriott, Alessandro Munge, Founder of Studio Munge, joins DESIGN POD for a heart-to-heart masterclass on how to effortlessly transform spaces in hotel design…

    DESIGN POD Alessandro Munge

    Meet Alessandro Munge, the Founder of Studio Munge; a visionary interior designer who has worked with leading hotel brands on a global scale to redefine hospitality through the power of design. Editor Hamish Kilburn welcomed Munge as his special guest for episode 32 of DESIGN POD, sponsored by Geberit.

    The Toronto-based designer and Kilburn first met on the Travel By Design podcast, by Marriott, where the two explored the fabrics, materials and the overall design story of Muir Halifax, Autograph Collection, a luxury hotel in Nova Scotia.

    On this episode of DESIGN POD, Kilburn’s aim was to start where they left off from that meaningful discussion, to understand more about Munge’s approach to projects and how he has helped brands, through clever and socially driven design, to amplify perhaps a different side of their personalities.

    A soft interior design scheme inside bedroom at Muir Halifax

    Image caption: Muir Halifax, Autograph Collection, designed by Studio Munge. | Image credit: Marriott International

    In addition to understand the architecture and design narrative of Muir, Kilburn spoke to Munge about sensitively designing EDITION’s first residences in Miami, how to effortlessly amplify a hotel brand’s language through design and the challenges involved in designing Sangri-La’s tallest hotel within its portfolio, which will open soon in Nanning, China.

    DESIGN POD is brought to you by Hotel Designs. This series is sponsored by Geberit, produced by Mel Yates and hosted by Hamish Kilburn.

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    Wren Loucks DESIGN POD

    Episode 29: Stimulating Wellness (Wren Loucks)

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    Episode 29: Stimulating Wellness (Wren Loucks)

    Wren Loucks, CEO and Creative Director of Be-kin, joins DESIGN POD, the design and architecture podcast for all creative enthusiasts. In episode 28, the interior designer and Editor Hamish Kilburn discuss sensory design, holistic hospitality and how, through stimulating wellness, hotel design can find new meaning…

    Wren Loucks DESIGN POD

    In episode 29 of DESIGN POD, a design and architecture podcast dedicated to cutting through the noise to unveil real, gamechanging conversations, Editor Hamish Kilburn welcomes interior designer Wren Loucks as a special guest to explore the concept of stimulating wellness. The discussion, which is the third episode to drop is series 4, sponsored by Geberit, covers everything from how Loucks first used design to make sense of the world around her to uncovering new researching around sensory design and holistic hospitality.

    Loucks, who was named last year as one of the top 25 influential interior designers, joined the podcast following her involvement in Geberit’s Hotel Guest Experience Report, in which the designer examines ritual, sensory-rich experiences and social sustainability in hotel design. The award-winning designer looks at how the differences in sensorial, cognitive, and physical abilities can be catered to by designing facilities to suit a range of needs, such as wheelchair accessibility, neurodiversity and an ageing population.

    In addition to being an integral voice Geberit’s recent report, Loucks has also been a contributor on Hotel Designs, authoring a number of articles, covering sensory design in sound, touch and seasons. She also, backed by science, published a whitepaper on conceptual design, WISH, which was awarded highly commendable for the Celia Thomas Prize for disabled guests at the International Blue Badge Access Awards in April 2022.

    Since launching Be-kin in November 2020, Loucks has completed six projects, ranging from Grade II listed buildings to a private gym in Fitzrovia. In addition to design, Loucks aims to educate her clients on how they are affected by spaces across their senses and create spaces that stimulate their wellbeing. For the studio’s commercial clients, the designer creates spaces that support social sustainability – designing for a range of cognitive, physical, and sensorial differences. She is, put simply, challenging conventional approaches to interior design, architecture and hospitality with a human-centric approach that is giving the entire arena a deeper purpose.

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    Matthew Balon DESIGN POD

    Episode 23: understanding ‘lean luxury’ in hotel design

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    Episode 23: understanding ‘lean luxury’ in hotel design

    Episode 23 of DESIGN POD, sponsored by Minotti London, Editor Hamish Kilburn welcomes Matthew Balon, Head of Design at Ruby Hotels, to explore the emerging concept of ‘lean luxury’ of which the brand is built on…

    Matthew Balon DESIGN POD

    In episode 23 of DESIGN POD, sponsored by Minotti London, Editor Hamish Kilburn has changed his approach. Instead of interviewing an independent designer or architect – or one from a leading international design firm – he has deliberately invited a designer whose role it is to work within a hotel group to ensure that each property shelters its own unique narrative while also feeling connected to the other hotels within the portfolio.

    Ruby Hotels, no stranger to Hotel Designs with its strong European and London presence, has an interesting take on ‘luxury‘. The brand’s philosophy of offering what it describes as ‘lean luxury’ is all about being smart with space, streamlining and digitising systems – and doing away with the things you don’t need, all while ensuring the guest experience remains seamless.

    In charge of ensuring the design and hospitality concept of ‘lean luxury’ is met within each hotel is Matthew Balon, Head of Design at Ruby Hotels. In this special episode, Kilburn speaks to the designer to understand what this looks and more importantly feels like.

    > Keep listening (below) to hear about the pair’s hilarious and somewhat awkward first encounter, when Kilburn and Balon met the morning after the night before Ruby Leni’s grand opening party in Düsserldorf, Germany.

    Balon, who joins the podcast (from bed) inside one of Ruby’s many hotels around Europe, gives the listeners of DESIGN POD an insight – a window into the hotel, if you like – into how he approaches each project he works on – from public areas to guestroom details and check-in experiences – so that each property shelters its own fun and quirky personality.

    With a lean organisational structure and concentration on the essentials, Ruby Hotels succeeds in creating a contemporary, affordable form of luxury for modern, cost and style-conscious customers. Founded in 2013, the Group already operates thirteen Ruby hotels, with a further 22 hotels under construction or in the planning phase. Ruby is expanding into Asia with the joint venture Ruby Asia, founded in 2018. Ruby also offers Ruby Workspaces in Munich, Hamburg and Dusseldorf.

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    Holly Hallam DESIGN POD

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

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    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

     

    Image of INODA+SVEJE in front of pink background and the DESIGN POD logo

    Episode 19: unconventional design details (INODA + SVEJE)

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    Episode 19: unconventional design details (INODA + SVEJE)

    To kickstart series 3 of DESIGN POD, sponsored by Minotti London, Editor Hamish Kilburn speaks to the Co-Founders of INODA + SVEJE to understand their design direction and inspiration behind the furniture pieces they designed for the Minotti 2022 Collection. In truth, though, this episode was so much more than striking design details…

    Image of INODA+SVEJE in front of pink background and the DESIGN POD logo

    One week after their debut collection with Minotti was debuted to the world at Salone del Mobile, Editor Hamish Kilburn caught up with Nils Sveje and Kyoko Inoda, the Co-Founders of INODA + SVEJE, to understand why furniture pieces they designed for the Italian luxury furniture brand were such a hit.

    Minotti describes the collaboration – the items being Yoko, Lars and Sendai – as ‘two worlds connecting’. The brand refers to the the two owners’ separate heritages – one Japanese and the other from Denmark. But, in reality, these protagonists within the 2022 Collection are the result of three cultures coming together in harmony, including Minotti’s Italian heritage. The tread that connects each piece is the language of minimalism, told is various ways.

    INODA+SVEJE was founded in 2000 in Copenhagen and is now, since 2003, situated in Milan. Together, working as a team of two – expanding beyond that would disrupt each designer’s harmony (their words, not mine) – they have developed a sensitive approach applied to both the design process and the resulting form and aesthetics.

    Main image credit: DESIGN POD/Hotel Designs

    DESIGN POD for Simon Kincaid

    Episode 17: Flexibility in design & architecture (Simon Kincaid)

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    Episode 17: Flexibility in design & architecture (Simon Kincaid)

    In episode 17 of DESIGN POD, in association with Minotti London, Simon Kincaid, Partner at Conran & Partners, joins the sofa to discuss the benefits of a flexible approach to design and architecture… 

    DESIGN POD for Simon Kincaid

    Simon Kincaid, who joins the DESIGN POD podcast, has more than 20 years’ industry experience in residential, hotel and hospitality design. Arguably, there is no one who is better equipped with the skills and know-how to understand and enforce flexibility in an industry that is ever-evolving.

    His latest projects include, among others, Puro Kazimierz, Blake Tower, Luma and The Conran Shop in Seoul.

    The interior designer and architect has worked across residential, hospitality and retail sectors, and brings a great understanding of consumer lifestyle trends to the communal and public areas of all project typologies, often to engage with the wider neighbourhood, as well as creating well detailed desirable homes, hotels and experiential retail experiences. And he does all this (and more) while generating a strong sense of place and identity in every brand he and his team touch.

    Kincaid joins Hamish Kilburn and co-host Harriet Forde for this episode, sponsored by Minotti London, to explore why now designers and architects need to be able to bend in order to create strong brand awareness and deeper narratives.

    For Kincaid, his ability, which was the result of working in various corners of the design and architecture arena, aligned cohesively with Conran & Partners’ approach to projects, which is to put the brand at the heart of the project.

    In the next episode of DESIGN POD, the duo from GamFratesi joins the Minotti London sofa to speak about furniture product design.  

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