Hospitality Design - March 2012 - 32

perspectives
pied-à-terre

sketchbook

Gold-brushed wood, alabaster, velvet, and gilded mosaic are among the luxurious materials Parisian interior designer Sybille de Margerie of SM Design turned to for the 39 new suites she imagined at Mandarin Oriental, Paris. The seven grand duplex suites, on the seventh and eighth oors of the hotel, include the Atelier spaces, surrounded in muted tones of ecru, coral, and plum, and opening onto Parisian rooftops; the silk, pearl, crystal, and sequinadorned Couture Suites—Broderies de Perles, Coromandel, and Arabesque; as well as the Royale Mandarin (shown), a 1930s-inspired hideaway where Man Ray’s Neck has been painstakingly embroidered onto the silk headboard, and the bathroom is marked by gold cabochons on the oor and a deep soaking tub that looks on to the Eiffel Tower. Meanwhile, the Royale Orientale, with its especially striking staircase, nods to nature with crocodiles handpainted on the bar, and captures the elegant journey from Paris to the Orient in a marble etched illustration. “Our idea was to express French haute couture by working with Francois Lesage, the famous embroiderer. Details of the revisited pattern picked in the

company archives were embroidered on the headboard and on decorative panels,” says de Margerie. “The same idea inspired our collaboration with Ali Madhavi, the famous fashion photographer, with whom we’ve done a special shoot. His pictures are just astonishing—so modern, romantic, and glamorous.”

a little bit british
Doha, the capital of the tiny emirate of Qatar, has fast become another (albeit less ﬂashy) Dubai. I.M. Pei’s Museum of Islamic Art arrived in 2008, the cultural hub is now bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, and a barrage of ritzy new hospitality projects are on the horizon. One that’s garnering much buzz is the Grand Heritage Doha Hotel & Spa, a 137-room property adjacent to the Aspire Zone sporting complex, inspired by the classical English style of the Lanesborough London. For the design, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, commissioned J/Brice Design International to instill a vibe that is at once opulent and residential, as revealed in the four distinctive dining rooms, including

chandelier-strewn signature Italian restaurant, Figus. “This is a destination. The idea is to create different culinary experiences, each with a private feel, that will make people want to come back,” says Jeffrey Ornstein, founder and CEO of the Boston- and Saudi Arabia-based ﬁrm. At casual Blue (shown), handmade glass panels found above the banquettes complement an earth-toned color palette, while at three-meal restaurant Flavours, the most formal of the spaces, Arabic food is served among gold and alabaster chandeliers hanging from coffered ceilings and gilded mahogany moldings. The true gem of this alcohol-free hotel however, might be Victoria, what Ornstein describes as a “very cozy British tearoom,” a hushed library setting of mahogany and burl inlay paneling, crimson silk window treatments, and leather and suede upholstery.

apéritif and a view
At La Vue, the recently unveiled bar on the 34th oor of classy Parisian hotel Concorde Lafayette, views of the Arc de Triomphe vie for attention with a stunning chandelier composed of 11,000 polished glass rods. “The ceiling creates a sensual, warm presence hovering over the whole space, caressing all surfaces with an ever-changing soft light,” explains La Vue’s architect, Pier Luigi Copat of locally based PLC Architectures. “Each rod is lit independently by

an RGB LED source hidden in the ceiling plenum, which allows for an in nite variety of effects. The surprisingly powerful nature of the chandelier reveals itself in its re ection on the windows, as it unfolds a dreamlike vision of the city landscape where the lighting in the ceiling appears to be like a luminous cloud over the whole city of Paris.” Beyond the lighting, the bar exudes posh, from the matte walls to the red velvet-like carpet to the stainless steel surfaces that have been transformed to resemble “soft peach skin” thanks to a glass sandblasting process. Says Copat, “Before La Vue was built the space seemed like a forgotten opera balcony, waiting to be reclaimed for its full potential role in the nightlife of the city whose extraordinary contours and landmarks it overlooks.”

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