From the Ascott Louvre, through Citadines Apart’hotels in Frankfurt and Hamburg, to a striking Nandos restaurant in Dundee, award-winning architecture and design practice, Buckley Gray Yeoman, is going from strength to strength in the hospitality sector. Hospitality Interiors’ Gemma Ralph caught up with director of the Shoreditch-based practice, Paul”White, to find out more about the practice’s defining philosophies, standout projects and future ambitions.
How did you forge a career in the industry, and what was it that first drew you to working in this sector?
I was in my final year at school, and one of my teachers brought in his daughter, who was in her final year studying architecture, to show her final year degree drawings to the class. That was the light bulb moment: having seen her beautiful sketches and drawings I was hooked and knew at that point that I wanted to be an architect, and that this was going to be my job.
Six years ago a client and friend asked us to pitch for a Citadines apart’hotel project in Holborn. It was a huge leap of faith, as we had at the time no hotel experience. Our creative thinking and fresh approach to the project was liked by all – and the rest, as they say, is history!
Who was inspirational to you early in your career – and why?
An architect and interior designer called Keith Eyre. He ran a small practice in East London and I worked with him from the age of 17. From an early age I saw how a practice was run, and was in the thick of it in terms of design and technical aspects of projects. Design quality and good personal relationships with clients were the keys to his success, as they have been for Buckley Gray Yeoman too.
What would you say are the defining philosophies of the practice?
We always bring fresh thinking to each of our projects and draw upon our experience of design across a range sectors: hospitality, residential, offices, retail and education – all have valuable lessons waiting to be applied to new problems. Underpinning all of our work is an honesty of materials and a rigour in detailing.
How do these philosophies complement your own?
As a practice we are as rigorous in the design of our architecture as we are with our interiors. We are always seeking out new challenges: whether that is working in this country or abroad; in sectors we have experience in, or new ones. We are absolutely not ‘specialists’. I believe our practice is more aligned to the agency model, where the design philosophy is the common thread, and the use is the variant.
What inspires you, personally, in your work?
I am consistently impressed by Paul Smith, a Northerner (like myself) who is able to combine tradition and modernity with a truly contemporary aesthetic. His designs capture that quintessential Englishness that seems to be so in demand around the world.
Which hospitality project are you most proud of to date?
I think it’s nearly always the last project we have finished! However, one that really stands out is our Citadines Trafalgar apart’hotel for Ascott International on Northumberland Avenue, just off Trafalgar Square.
This project combines traditional detailing with a real contemporary aesthetic. It was a particularly rewarding project because we had control over all aspects of the design, even down to designing the wallpaper and rugs. We even dressed the common parts when the project was finished. This total design approach is what makes our work so rewarding.
Which other projects stand out in Buckley Gray Yeoman’s portfolio?
Our work for Fred Perry. The most successful projects are those that have great, enthusiastic clients. This has always been the case with Fred Perry: they have pushed us in terms of our design approach, and we have been demanding of them.
Our working relationship started when we designed their head office in Covent Garden, directly opposite the underground station. The large sculptural reception desk that we designed for them in the shape of their logo has now become a tourist photo opportunity!
We continued working together on some high-profile design-led brand stores and have now been given overall responsibility for the design of their shops worldwide. In April we finish their flagship store in Bangkok, and we are about to start on their shop in Cologne.
How does designing commercial spaces differ from residential? Which would you say is more rewarding for you?
Commercial spaces tend to be more technically demanding than residential. The key to designing successful commercial space is to understand the myriad technical constraints while not being a slave to their requirements. It is very much the adage that, as an architect, you need to know a little about an awful lot of things – and use this information to create inspirational spaces.
Commercial space is the most rewarding for us at present since the level of design expectation has risen dramatically in the last 5 to 10 years.
What are the elements that you feel are critical to effective hospitality design?
I am a firm believer that hospitality design should relate to its location. If I travel to a new city or country I want to stay in an environment that is of that place – I certainly do not want what we call ‘vanilla’: a bland, ‘could be anywhere in the world’ space. I want to see character and personality in a design.
How do you feel hospitality design has evolved over the years?
Hospitality design has been caught up in the customers’ desire for good design. The public has become much more discerning and critical of design in recent times.
Hospitality design has had to embrace this aspirational approach. If you take hotel design in particular, this has gone through a near revolution in the last 20 to 30 years. Before that time there was no such thing as a ’boutique hotel’ – when these started to appear, initially run by individuals, they changed forever what people wanted from a hotel room. Now all the large hotel chains have boutique brands.
Have you got any new projects in the pipeline that you’d like to share?
We are excited by our Citadines project in Hamburg, a new build 140-room apart’hotel that finishes in the summer, and our flagship store for Fred Perry in Bangkok that finishes in April. We are also about to start a new shop design on Old Bond Street, global epicentre of luxury retail, but unfortunately I can’t tell you who it’s for – watch this space!
How do you envisage the practice evolving over the next 25 years?
Over the next 25 years I hope to develop an even more diverse workload than we have today, to still be building projects around the world, and perhaps to be travelling more for pleasure than for business!
