Reflections on the future of hotel design – Design Leaders and Cultural Spies
The Hotel Design Leaders of the Next Decade will be Cultural Spies
By Jeffrey Ornstein, Founder and CEO, J/Brice Design International, Inc., Boston, MA & Dammam, Saudi Arabia
The passing of Yves Saint Laurent last year crystallized my thinking about how the principles of great fashion are so similar to the principles of great hospitality design.
Saint Laurent was a master at reading social change and creating fashions that reflected the enormous social and cultural changes that were taking place during his lifetime. The best known of these was his creation of the pantsuit that reflected a sea change with regard to the role of women in society, business and professionally. Likewise, leading-edge hotel designers must observe and interpret the cultural mega trends that are now taking place before our eyes and interpret these changes in our work and execution.
To be sure, the latest materials – be they the couturier’s fabrics or the hotel designer’s furnishings and fixtures — have a profound influence on the outcome and do suggest possibilities.
Nevertheless, real inspiration must be drawn from our cultural, geo-political and economic environment. For the first time, for example, the world design centers are no longer only in Europe and the US. The Middle East now has tremendous influence on redefining the luxury hotel experience. The region’s emergence as leader, rather than follower of American and European neo-modernist themes, is coupled with a new ultra-high-end guest who has a global perspective and heightened expectations that far surpass those of the previously adhered to Western standards.
Cultural Spies
Like Mr. Saint Laurent who was a master at reading people and their times, those of us in the hotel industry have to read the people we serve and place them – not the hotel — at center stage. We must be guest-centered rather than hotel- centered. Since memorable clothing fashions draw inspiration from people and society, we as hotel designers should think of ourselves as being, not in the hotel design business, but in the hotel fashion business.
The concept of hotel design as hotel fashion began to develop when I addressed Heimtextil, the renowned international fabric show in Frankfurt Germany. There I coined the term ‘Cultural Spy’. Indeed the designer as Cultural Spy underscores our belief that true inspiration comes from society – the guests our clients serve and want to serve. The term ‘Cultural Spy’ resonated with the international audience of designers, architects, textile manufacturing executives and hospitality industry leaders. It succinctly emphasized how important it is for the hotel designer to take in everything about society – from popular culture — such as movies, fashion, music and cuisine – to the fine arts as well as shifting economic centers, political winds and social tensions.
Being a ‘cultural spy’ is at the heart of our work at J/Brice Design (www.jbricedesign.com). We are now restoring the luxurious RMS Queen Mary that first sailed in 1934. We are not simply bringing this magnificent ocean liner-cum-hotel and popular wedding venue in Long Beach, California back to its original Art Deco era splendor as if it were a museum. We are instead focusing on what a 21st century guest with contemporary expectations wants and recreating the romance – of luxury travel during in Hollywood’s Golden Age. Similarly, we read the guests who visit the Muse in New York and established This Times Square property as the sought-after hip-hop boutique hotel in Manhattan and the in place for music industry glitterati.
Internationally, the royal families in the Middle East were diversifying oil wealth and investing in infrastructure and real estate, including of course hotels and resorts. When they asked J/Brice Design to create luxury properties in the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean, they also urged us to push the limits of luxury. They want us to help them define a new World Standard that will attract and exceed the expectation of the new traveler to region. Indeed, we are now creating the interiors of Doha, Qatar’s iconic Aspire Tower that will define this city as much as the sail shaped Burj al Arab defines Dubai.
We’re also creating designs for a new property in the Saudi Arabian oil-rich province of Al-Khobar. The hotel experience we create will resonate with guests as diverse as fashion models from France, cattle barons from Uruguay or CEOs from North America. It comes down to this: guests, who arrive on their own Gulfstream, expect their hotel experience to exceed their homes and private jet. This guest must be awed.
The Hotel that Branded a City
The Burj al Arab opened our industry’s eyes to enormous potential. The property exceeded expectations with its sleek poetic sail-shape and high fashion, luxury mystique. It actually established Dubai as a global brand, with the hotel’s distinctive shape as its logo—as powerful a brand identity as the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.
Working in the Middle East, means we have to meet guest demand for fresh new ideas all the time. We are creating unique and distinctly separate experiences for the guests of the Uber Moderne Aspire Tower and English Classic Hotel Khalifa in Doha, Qatar. The bold and inventive styles we are creating there are setting the benchmark for future developments we are managing in other Qatari locations as well as Bahrain, The Saudi Kingdom and the region’s newest hot spot, Zanzibar.
From Hotel Design to Hotel Fashion
Looking to the future, the iconic hotels of the 2010-decade will be created by designers who recognize and then interpret cultural shifts, with the focus on the guests and their lives. The designers are getting support from owners who recognize the importance of making their hotel environments relevant to their guests’ lifestyles and culture.
The legendary Yves Saint Laurent was an astute observer of society, culture, and emerging trends. He created fresh, new, styles that were relevant and eventually became classics. As hotel designers, we now have the opportunity to read the winds of cultural change and create guest experiences that resonate with our times and create the memorable hotels of the future.
Editorial note:
Jeff Ornstein’s J/Brice Design International (www.jbricedesign.com) is responsible for the design of Royal Family owned hospitality projects in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as other luxury developments in Bahrain, Zanzibar, whose total construction costs exceed 1.2 Billion USD.
Mr. Ornstein’s work is already beginning to establish the Middle East as the new world-leader in hospitality design. His guest-centric themes incorporate Arabian motifs with Asian and European influences to create a never-before seen-esthetic in the luxury hospitality sector.
As a result of his vision, J/Brice was recently named designer-of-record for the iconic Aspire Tower — Doha, Qatar’s answer to the sail-shaped Burj al Arab that branded the city of Dubai.
Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, J/Brice Design International, Inc. is a preferred design group for Hilton Hotels including its Full Service, Corporate and Franchise properties, inclusive of all Hilton, Doubletree Hotel and Guest Suites, and Hampton Inn brands, Marriott International / Renaissance Hotels, Trump International Beach Resorts and Starwood – including Sheraton, Westin, and 4-Points, Best Western and Intercontinental Hotel Group.
In addition to the Aspire Tower, the firm’s International credentials include work for TAJ Hotels, Independent Boutique Hotels in Dubai, The Khalifa Hotel in Doha, Qatar, and currently the Al-Khobar Hotel and Towers in The Kingdom Saudi Arabia.
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