Hospitality Design - May 2017 - 151

leong
teng wui

perspectives

interview

By Stacy Shoemaker Rauen
Photos courtesy of Ascott Limited

1. Along with pops of
blue and glass-enclosed
showers, Lyf's guestrooms
trade in closets for rails
that suspend from the
ceiling.

NEXT GENERATION
Ascott's Millennial brand debuts with the help
of an industry veteran

Leong Teng Wui knows a thing or two about
hospitality design and development. For
almost 20 years, the Harvard University and
National University of Singapore grad has
developed hotels, serviced apartments, and
mixed-use properties throughout Asia and
the world for the likes of Ong & Ong and
Millennium & Copthorne International, all
after he started his career heading up design
for the Urban Redevelopment Authority of
Singapore.
Five years ago, he joined Ascott Limited,
a leading international serviced residence
owner-operator, as chief development officer,
overseeing a team of design professionals to
look after and develop the company's more
than 200 properties in 70 cities worldwide.
He's also helping to spearhead Ascott's newest
brand Lyf (pronounced life), which hopes to
attract Millennials looking for longer stays by
blending coliving and coworking with a bit of
whimsy. "I have seen the serviced residence
industry becoming more diverse in terms
of real estate typology, product design, and
service offerings in cities across the world,"

he says, pointing to the changing needs of
business travelers, demographic profiles of his
customers, as well as air travel and technology.
With a target goal of opening 10,000 Lyf
units by 2020, and after opening the company's
first living lab in partnership with the
Singapore Management University to test the
pillars of the brand, Leong chats about putting
Millennials in charge, building a community,
and finding the kid in all of us.

What did you want to create with Lyf
that didn't already exist in the market?
Millennials currently form a quarter of Ascott's
customers, and this segment is poised to grow
exponentially. Individuals in their 20s and 30s
will account for more than half of the workforce
by 2020, with all Millennial travelers expected to
spend more than $200 billion annually. We set
out to create a new serviced residence brand that
would appeal to Millennials and the Millennialminded, given the great growth potential we see
in this market segment.
The launch of Lyf is another milestone in
Ascott's innovation journey to design products
and experiences for the future of travel. We are
the first serviced residence company to partner
with new economy leaders like Tujia (China's
largest online apartment sharing platform
equivalent to Airbnb) and Alitrip (Alibaba's travel
platform, now known as Fliggy).

What is the Lyf philosophy?
Just as every customer is unique, our units
should also be customizable to suit individual
needs and preferences. The product and design
team studied similar offerings in markets such
as Germany and the United Kingdom, where
coliving concepts are more mature. We were
mindful that the product is designed to cater to
the needs of longer-stay travelers and ensured
that the apartments are cleverly configured and
comfortable enough to suit the different lifestyles
of our customers.
Early in 2016, we embarked on a brand
study and conducted focus group discussions to
test various concepts, such as shared bathroom
facilities, communal lounges, and social spaces.
We also surveyed our key corporate customers to
find out if this was an accommodation concept
they would choose. Lyf was developed and
designed with these insights in mind.

What sort of guest culture did you have
in mind when designing the space?
The properties will have plenty of communal
spaces designed to encourage networking and
interaction between guests. Coworking areas can
be easily transformed into zones for workshops or
social gatherings. Residents can also hang out at
the Wash & Hang laundromat and play a round
of foosball while waiting for their laundry to be
done. The Bond social kitchen is where guests

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Hospitality Design - May 2017

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