WE NEED TO TALK After 35-years designing your hotels we understand what you’re going through. COVID-19 has been very, very scary for hospitality but as Dr Norman Swan says ‘We will get through this!’ Here at the pointy-end of new developments we’ve been busy preparing a Pandemic Future-Proof Plan to help our colleagues transition [...]
It’s taken me 16 years to make the journey to Cuba. Not because I was attempting to walk all the way from Australia but because during my first attempt I was in New Orleans, en route to Mexico City and then on to Havana, when I was called home because my mother was gravely ill. Back [...]
When to introduce a client to an artwork concept for a project is always tricky. Do you put your ideas on the table at the first concept presentation? Well, ideally yes. But when there are big macro issues to be resolved like where to place risers in a building or how to comply with building [...]
I’ve recently got back from windy Wellington, New Zealand, were I went to inspect a new project that’s ripe for refurbishment. It’s a smallish hotel called The Brentwood that has been part of the fabric of its local community since the early Sixties. On the surface it looked like a rather ordinary establishment with dated [...]
A new level of sophistication for Perth’s vibrant heart Press release from InterContinental Perth City Centre Perth, Australia, 15 October 2017: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®), one of the world’s leading hotel companies, unveiled InterContinental Perth City Centre today – the 6th InterContinental hotel in Australia. Nestled amidst ‘The King Street Precinct’ with a charming heritage streetscape [...]
It’s Thursday, it must be Jakarta! Life’s a bit like that as Creative Director of a design firm which has projects all over the globe. Although it doesn’t mean I’m hopping on a plane every few days, I’m happy to report, as I often have to conjure up cultures from the comfort of our studio [...]
Home stays come in many guises, not all pretty. The more time you put into researching the area, reading peer reviews and even checking out Google Earth, the luckier you're likely to get. I struck gold in Amsterdam with a home stay that was just about the most novel, romantic and comfortable stay I have [...]
Two days in our design studio at CHADA are rarely the same. We may be brainstorming a new hotel complex which has to accommodate people and well as horses - actually three times the number of very expensive thoroughbreds to human guests. Or, learning about designing beautiful living spaces for dementia patients or maybe designing [...]
I recently found myself in a glittering palace of crystal admiring chandeliers whose designs had been created for Marie Antoinette and Napoleon themselves. My inspiration is water and the project is in Jinan (China), which is famous for its natural springs and the large reservoirs and waterways which connect the city, a bit like Amsterdam. [...]
Wherever you go in the world, you stumble across Australians doing remarkable things. Entering the walled courtyard of the 16th Century restored farmhouse, Masseria Trapana, near Lecce in Puglia, I am greeted by a very Italian-looking host with a deep, olive complexion. Yet the accent is distinctly Adelaidean. Rob Potter-Sanders [...]
