Hospitality Design - December 2014 - 44

perspectives

interview tal danai and

adam d. tihany

2
2+3. Two Tihany and
Danai-designed projects:
Holland America's ms
Koningsdam cruise
ship with a custom
sculpture 30 feet in
diameter in its three-story
atrium, and the floating
pineapple at Dinner by
Heston Blumenthal at the
Mandarin Oriental Hyde
Park London.

do with the overall look of the project at the end.
AT: Tal and I had numerous philosophical
discussions about what is art, what does it mean
for our project, what does it mean in general. For
us, this is not about decorations. All of the art that
we do together is site specific. It has to do with the
design, it has to do with the location, it has to do
with an overall philosophy of what do we want to

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convey in terms of the end result of the project.
What is the message?
The second part of the equation, which is
even more complicated than Tal and I working
together, is the client. The client in some
instances is very sophisticated. They view art
as an expression of culture, of sophistication,
of knowledge. Some of them view it as an

investment, so it's even getting a third dimension.
But for some clients it's purely decorative. That's
when we try to turn the client around by asking
him, 'Why is there a piece of art hanging in a
hotel room? Why is it not a mirror? Can you tell
me why you think your customer walks into a
luxury hotel room and expects to see art on the
wall? Why isn't it another bigger television?'
By provoking that answer, you make them
consider that it's not a decorative thing, it's
actually a cultural phenomenon. And if it is
a cultural phenomenon, then Tal comes in
with his background and knowledge and how
he interprets that particular culture or that
particular customer that will walk into the room,
and what would they expect to get from the art
besides just a picture hanging on a wall?
TD: The industry calls our discipline art
consultants. But the work we do, and especially
the work we do with Adam, is why I prefer to
be called an art designer. There are so many
different aspects of going into why should there
be this or that image or sculpture in a space?
Yes, we can just put in the nicest thing we find.
But we can also put something that will at least
attempt to add another layer to the space, and
that's a much more interesting process. I have to
make sure that when the guest leaves the hotel
they remember where they were. And hopefully
they want to come back.
AT: In many instances, Tal and I start to talk
about the project as we conceive the project. He's
not brought into the project at the end where
everything is designed and I say, 'I have a blank
wall here, what am I going to do about it?' During
the design process I say, 'I have a problem with
these two decks of a cruise ship, and I don't know
how to connect them. What can we do to make a
stair be a piece of art? How do we bring art into
this that it's not like a sitting sculpture right in
front of me but the stair itself is an art piece? Do
you have any ideas?'
This is how this whole process works. It's art
design. Given that, I would say 75 percent of what
we do on these projects is totally site specific and
custom; it's not something we buy from a shelf.
TD: That is something I would never have
imagined. This is a unique way of working. We
work with many designers all over the world. You
have to be an extremely confident designer to be
able to bring the art in at such an early stage and
give it the space within your design and think
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