Boutique Design - December 2015 - 90

SIRAI HOUSE, KENYA

How's tHis for a trifecta: In its first-ever attempt at winning a Gold Key Award

for Excellence in Hospitality Design, Fox Browne Creative not only took home two
first-place trophies-it also won the coveted Designer of the Year honor for 2015.
For more on the Johannesburg, South Africa-based firm's design of the
&Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge in Botswana-which it created in partnership with two architecture firms (Michaelis Boyd Associates, London, and
Nicholas Plewman Architects, Johannesburg) and won Best Eco Conscious or
Socially Conscious Hotel and Judges' So Cool awards-see pages 16 and 44,
respectively. For more on how the firm's married co-founders, Debra Fox and Chris
Browne, honed their approach to skillfully blending hospitality interiors with their
surrounding architecture to create memorable hospitality experiences, read on.
HOW DID FOX BROWNE CREATIVE COME TO BE?
CHRIS: Debra is a hotelier who began her career in Cape Town, South Africa.

She started in the safari lodge industry in 1994 and very quickly became the
chief operating officer for &Beyond, Africa's leading safari company. I started
with &Beyond in 1996 as the in-house designer and became group creative
director. We met while developing Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania and
have worked together ever since-we even got married at Ngorongoro in 2001!
After developing over 40 lodge products in Africa and India, we left
&Beyond and started Fox Browne Creative in 2009. We wanted to continue to
work with diverse visionary clients whose hotel and lodge developments would
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make a positive impact on the surrounding communities. We believe hospitality is a big driver in uplifting communities in developing economies.
TELL US ABOUT THE RANGE OF SERVICES FOX BROWNE CREATIVE OFFERS,
AND HOW THAT DIFFERS FROM TYPICAL DESIGN FIRMS?
DEBRA: We try to create lasting value for our clients through the implementation
of innovative, creative, elegant, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for
interior design and development, as well as crafted guest experiences, product
branding, marketing, training, internal communication and systems in the luxury
sector of the hospitality and retail industries. We bridge the gap between design
and operations. Basically, our combined operational knowledge and design skills
set us apart from the usual design firms. Another differentiator: we offer turnkey
solutions, from the creative process through to training the staff.
We have a small team of technical designers, product developers and a separate hospitality training division. We believe that the training component in our
business is what truly sets us apart. Well-trained staff bring the interior spaces to
life and make the divide between design and operations appear seamless.
THE GOLD KEY JUDGES WERE IMPRESSED BY YOUR FIRM'S MISSION
STATEMENT, WHICH READS, IN PART, "BY CREATING AN UNBROKEN CHAIN
OF PERFECT MOMENTS FOR GUESTS, WE HOPE THAT WHEN THEY LEAVE,
THEY HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD ALL OVER AGAIN. IN SHORT,

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Boutique Design - December 2015

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