Boutique Design - January/February 2018 - 52

3 A custom art installation
consisting of reclaimed
tiles serves as a
conversation-starter in
the hotel's lobby.

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
CLIENT

CARPET

PORTORO GOLD MARBLE

DESIGN FIRMS

FABRICS

RECLAIMED TILE

Nobu Hospitality
Studio Mica: Carolynne
Shenton, Mike Walter,
directors and co-founders
Studio PCH: Severine
Tatangelo, principal
ARCHITECTURE

Ben Adams Architecture
Ron Arad
ART & ACCESSORIES

52

boutiquedesign.com January + February 2018

Dekotel Sarl
Margot Selby
John Boyd Fabrics
FURNITURE

Dekotel Sarl
Orbium
Parla
Walter Knoll
X8 Chairs

Cloth Here
Lisa Stockham
Sichi Bon

LAMINATES

BATH

Grupa Products
Marset Lighting
Nina's House
Porada

LAUFEN
Dekotel Sarl

4 Architect Ron Arad's
contemporary, cantilevered
exterior makes the hotel a
visual standout in an area
dominated by Industrial
Age brick buildings.

Newhey Carpets

ABET Laminati
LIGHTING

E90

Authentic Reclamation
TEXTILES

Altfield

VINYL FLOOR TILES

Bolon

WOVEN LEATHER HEADBOARDS

Naturtex

WOVEN PAPERCORD
MATS

Woodnotes

Shenton explains: "Creating custom-made furnishings
allowed us to achieve a holistic design unique to this project and
client, resulting in timeless interiors whose parts cannot be seen
or purchased in showrooms or catalogs."
This inventive spirit suffuses the 141 guest rooms and seven
suites. Before creating the units required, FF&E designer/fabricator Dekotel Sarl crafted two prototypes of a golden "bento box"
that unfolds to reveal glossy red lacquer and Japanese paper-lined
nooks concealing a television, minibar and tea set. Each bed's
lower base and thicker, handmade mattress emulate those in
Japan, while angled concrete planes and glimpses of graffiti juxtapose the rooms' elegance with grit. Glistening with custom gilded
fixtures and blue, fish-motif shower tiles, the pristine white bathrooms are the yin-yang counterpart to the dark timber slats of the
dressing area and closet hiding the interconnecting suite door.
As for the design of the property's centerpiece restaurant,
Venice, California-based Studio PCH was brought in to design that
space, based on its track record of conceiving several other dining
and hotel venues for Nobu Hospitality at such locales as Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Since their 1994 New York launch, all the Michelin-starred
Nobu restaurants have featured individual designs reflecting
local character. Informed by onsite R&D, Studio PCH sought to
differentiate this 3,660-sq.ft. destination mainly via its bar, while
complementing Studio Mica's design of the adjoining 80-seat
outdoor terrace with 16-ft.-high glass doors.
"Our dialogue between Shoreditch's industrial past, Japanese
design and urban British counterculture creates a cool aesthetic
context bridging a club and a bar," explains Studio PCH principal
Severine Tatangelo. "A DJ at the top of the double-height stairs
gets guests dancing and below, the angled bar heightens social
interaction by bringing people closer together." In the 240-seat
dining space, exposed concrete respects and reflects the building's structural integrity, while warm timbers and adjustable
curtains lend an element of intimacy.
The Nobu Shoreditch's thoroughly integrated design illustrates
the power of visionary hotel architecture to evoke emotional
responses and also elevate the quality of the surrounding community. "This was a dream opportunity to create artful interiors for
Arad's landmark and put a local signature into an international
project in our own neighbourhood," says Shenton. 
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