Luxury

    Matthew Balon DESIGN POD

    Episode 23: understanding ‘lean luxury’ in hotel design

     1024 640 Hamish Kilburn
    By:
    0
    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.

    Main image credit: DESIGN POD

    DESIGN POD for Simon Kincaid

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

     1024 640 Hamish Kilburn
    By:
    0
    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.  

    Main image credit: DESIGN POD

    DESIGN POD Series 2 Jo Littlefair

    Episode 15: A new era of luxury design (Jo Littlefair)

     1024 640 Hamish Kilburn
    By:
    0
    Episode 15: A new era of luxury design (Jo Littlefair)

    In episode 15 of DESIGN POD, in association with Minotti London, interior designer Jo Littlefair joins the sofa discuss interior schemes, materials and projects that are shaping a new chapter of luxury in hotel design and high-end residential (scroll down to listen)…

    DESIGN POD Series 2 Jo Littlefair

    Jo Littlefair, who won Interior Designer of the Year in 2019 at The Brit List Awards, is the Co-Founder of Goddard Littlefair, a design studio that is unquestionably on the curve of the hotel design industry. Taking time out of her daily mission to purposefully challenge the perception of luxury in interior design, she joined Editor Hamish Kilburn and co-host Harriet Forde – virtually due to a Covid-19 curveball – to discuss the ever-evolving luxury hotel sector in 2022 and beyond.

    Injecting inspiration from her travels into the studio and sharing her passion for new and exciting dining, dwelling and hospitality experiences, Littlefair’s curious and observant nature allows her to recognise emerging evolutions in consumer, industry and design trends.

    Having recently completed projects such as Villa Copenhagen, The Curtain – At The Mondrian Shoreditch and The Mayfair Townhouse – while currently working on, among others, the interior design scheme inside Mandarin Oriental in Vienna and the spa inside Raffles’ first hotel in London, Littlefair and her team shelter the skillset (and passion) to make meaningful noise and intuitive impact within the hotel design and hospitality arena.

    So, let’s meet her shall we?

    DESIGN POD, series two, is sponsored by Minotti London. In the next episode, Kilburn and Forde chat to Ed Murray, Associate at Dexter Moren Associates, to explore fluid and boundless architecture.

    Main image credit: DESIGN POD

    Guy Oliver DESIGN POD on purple backdrop

    Episode 14: Modern design in heritage buildings (Guy Oliver)

     1024 640 Hamish Kilburn
    By:
    0
    Episode 14: Modern design in heritage buildings (Guy Oliver)

    In episode 14 of DESIGN POD, in association with Minotti London, award-winning interior designer Guy Oliver is invited on the sofa to discuss the challenges and opportunities that come with injecting modern design touches inside heritage buildings…

    Guy Oliver DESIGN POD on purple backdrop

    It’s probably easier to tell you about the hotels and luxury residences that interior designer Guy Oliver has not touched in Mayfair, London. His portfolio includes, but is not limited to Claridge’s, The Connought Hotel and The Princeton Club in New York – making him, arguably, the most qualified to discuss the topic of blending old with the new in hotel design.

    In this episode of DESIGN POD, sponsored by Minotti London, Oliver joins Hamish Kilburn and co-host Harriet Forde to discuss the challenges (and opportunities) that emerge when blending contemporary elements into heritage buildings, which is the ultimate juxtaposition in design and architecture.

    In addition, Oliver shares his experience being involved in the latest series of BBC’s Interior Design Masters, where he was a judge in the ‘hotel challenge’, and tasked the contestants with the challenge to design guestrooms that sensitively celebrate the quintessentially British grounds of Highley Manor Hotel.

    DESIGN POD, series two, is sponsored by Minotti London. In the next episode, Kilburn and Forde chat to Jo Littlefair, Co-Founder of Goddard Littlefair, to understand the new era of luxury in hotel and high-end residential design.

    Main image credit: DESIGN POD