Hospitality Design - April 2023 - 145

A showroom and playspace for the
Healthybaby brand in New York
A rendering of the upcoming Anna Jona
Café & Theater in Reykjavik, Iceland
Photos by CHRISTINE HAN and REID ROLLS, and rendering courtesy of ALA and RIZZOOR
Alda Ly
Founder and Principal
Alda Ly Architecture
Soon after completing her undergraduate and graduate
architecture studies, Alda Ly realized that her passion lay in
designing commercial interiors, where she had the chance to
tackle impactful, people-centered design problems. Since founding
her namesake firm in 2017, Ly has helped reshape healthcare
and hospitality spaces with a more compassionate lens, including
designs for late coworking space the Wing and airy, welcoming
interiors for Parsley Health and Tia women's health clinics.
Many of your projects are spaces specifically supporting
women. Why is that an important focus for you?
Most spaces (most things, in fact) were designed for 'people,' with
the implicit assumption that people are men. This hit home for
me when I was pregnant with my first child, which coincided
with the founding of my firm. Our first big project was the Wing,
a coworking space for women. When I was designing it, I was
working out of a local coworking space. It was painfully obvious to
see what was missing, from the open sea of desks and dark color
theme to the relentless messaging encouraging you to work harder.
I felt forgotten about. Through our work, I'm grateful to have a
hand in changing that, one project at a time.
How do you bring a hospitality lens to healthcare
design?
Healthcare spaces are typically designed for efficiency and
sanitization, and once you realize no one has bothered to anticipate
your experience, you start noticing it everywhere you look. We
want to make people feel at ease and that they're going to be taken
care of. We want to anticipate people's interactions with the space
and with others in it. We need to be aware of the patient's state of
mind: Are they anxious? Embarrassed? Grieving? Are they healthy
or unwell? How can the space help facilitate conversations to help
the patient? It's all about staying one step ahead and making sure
there isn't anything that we haven't thought of. We love working
on any project where there is an intense focus on the guest
experience-whether it's a hotel or restaurant, or an obstetrical
clinic.
How do these translate into the workplaces you design?
Everything holds true for workplaces, but there's an added
element of flexibility that's really important. Today, many people
have a choice about coming to the office, and their expectations
have risen accordingly. Frankly, if you're building an office space
today, you need to try a lot harder. So we're working with clients
to offer a ton of flexibility and variation, providing not only
traditional desks, but also social lounge areas, quiet nooks, huddle
rooms, and lots of unique and relevant amenities. We want to give
people the freedom to work wherever they feel comfortable.
What's important to you in building your own firm and
team?
I try to build the firm that I always wanted to work at. When
people feel supported and like they're growing and getting
feedback, they'll want to stick around for the longterm, and that'll
make us a stronger firm in the end. People at my firm are always
getting feedback. We're transparent about what skills people need
as they progress, and rigorous about letting people know where
they are and how they need to grow. I expect people to want to
take the next step up. I want my people to be ambitious.
What's next for Alda Ly Architecture?
We're about to launch a contract furniture line in collaboration
with HBF, who we recently designed a showroom for. We're also
designing some fun taprooms for a women-owned brewery in New
York. And we're working with Princeton University to reimagine
some of their office and collaboration spaces.
hospitalitydesign.com April 2023
145
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Hospitality Design - April 2023

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