Boutique Design - January/February 2018 - 50

2 An angled bar top and multiple
seating arrangements encourage
interaction in the bar adjoining
the hotel's Nobu restaurant.

Celebrating Arad's sculptural, concrete frame became job one for the design
team. The five-story steel, glass and concrete envelope, along with the exposed,
cantilevered steel beams that shape its staggered suite balconies above the
public "pocket garden," together form a bold exterior that is reflected
throughout the interiors.
London firm Ben Adams Architects was brought in to integrate the services
and specific spatial requirements of a hotel into the building. Shoreditch-based
Studio Mica was commissioned to create the hotel's interiors, as the client
admired director and co-founder Carolynne Shenton's earlier work as
Anoushka Hempel Design's design director.
Knowing the hotel's guests would expect experiences on par with Nobu's
restaurants, the brief was short: reflect London versus Japanese pastiche, while
following the brand's ethos, "simple sophistication."
"Given Arad's dynamic architecture and Shoreditch's artistic legacy, we all
wanted to avoid framed paintings and instead integrate craft as art," Shenton
explains. This reverence for craftsmanship begins at the vestibule's Japanese
gardens where roof shingles made from shou sugi ban, charred timber that
self-seals against weather, are imaginatively repurposed as wallcovering.
The lobby's sophisticated composition of natural textures, orthogonal
planes and a restrained palette of matte black patinas, inky blues and warm
woods creates understated elegance. Behind the black Portoro marble-topped
reception desk and bar, both clad with staggered black cork bricks, is a simple
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boutiquedesign.com January + February 2018

feature wall whose downlights draw out shadows from pebbles behind a
timber frame.
Around the glazed perimeter, slatted timber screens inset with antiqued
mirrors lend privacy, while the lobby's volume and scale further enhance intimacy. Two square banquette clusters, each with four tables, tatami mat cushions and rattan dividers, provide generous seating yet feel cozy. Above, two
shoji screen light fixtures inset with illuminated globes and wrapped with over
a mile of rope have a visual mass proportionate with the tall ceilings, so the
space feels balanced.
Next to the lounge's oiled black steel fireplace is what Shenton jokingly
describes as the interiors' "folly": a beloved, extravagant collage of reclaimed
salvage yard tiles her studio designed collaboratively with local artist Sichi Bon
and then carefully assembled onsite with help from contractor MTD. Bon's
abstract, meditative style can also be found printed on sliding shoji screens
throughout the hotel, from the conference and corridor areas to bedrooms,
where he used golden paint to hand-embellish blackout screens printed with
his art series "Taizu," a Japanese expression meaning "to stay."
Guest rooms needed to be as luxurious as those double in size at the brand's
Las Vegas flagship, while accommodating dining for two and complimentary tea
service. Studio Mica's response was to create nearly everything bespoke using 3D
visuals, scaled drawings and material specifications so MTD could accurately
communicate the designers' and client's requirements for bid tendering.
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