HIX & Co Present: Hotel BDC // Purcell x The Glass House Urban Retreat
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Marking our largest and most ambitious installation yet, HIX LDN 2024 will see Islington’s iconic Business Design Centre reimagined as a hotel experience by four leading hospitality design studios. Presented as a multimedia gallery within a dedicated space constructed by set-builders Cloud and Horse, each team’s vision is centred around a deep-dive report by heritage consultants Historic Productions, and celebrate the power of history, locality, and community in hotel design.
Ahead of the big reveal on 27 November, we sat down with each studio to hear more about their proposed concept and their approach to creating a sense of place. Second up are architectural heritage specialists Purcell and their collaborators Customs Bureau, who have drawn from the BDC’s past as an agricultural hall to develop a communal hub centred around innovative urban farming solutions, plant-based hospitality and the sensory experience of food.
Here, Nick de Klerk (NDK), Associate Partner and Head of Hospitality at Purcell, Oliver Beddard (OB), Senior Architect, Purcell, and Shida Salehi, Founder & Principal, Customs Bureau, talk us through their vision for ‘The Glasshouse Urban Retreat'
Our theme for HIX 2024 is ‘a sense of place’ – What does this mean to you as designers?
OB: When I think about the places that have affected me, there’s been a lasting memory or emotional response, for better or worse. It isn’t just the pictures you have in your mind, but how you were feeling at the time; what you could smell and touch, the temperature and your mood. The best examples are so powerful they almost transport you back there, so I think a sense of place is something that really gets under your skin.
NDK: The best instances in a hospitality context are the ones where you get a real crossover between locals and visitors. There have been several hotels I’ve stayed in that weren’t particularly amazing or close to the city centre, but on Saturday evening the place would be full. For me, a sense of place taps into the local community, because when you can make a guest feel like they are actually part of something native and organic it can be a very powerful experience.
SS: When it comes to luxury hospitality, a sense of place is something that sets the tone, but as Oliver says it’s almost imperceptible. It’s something you find in the details of a location, and so the best projects take this and carry them through, from the lights and the paintings to how a view is framed through the window. As designers, it’s our job to curate these moments for guests so that they can become part of their experience of a place.
What did you take away from the Historic Productions report?
OB: There are two strands we tapped into. One of them is food production and display, because the BDC was a former agricultural hall and right away you have that image of cattle being driven through the streets to the auction. But as we move towards a more meat-free environment, this image might not sit well with everyone, and that got us thinking about new ways of producing food and modernising that process. We’ve talked a lot about scarcity and creative farming solutions, as well as innovative ways in which food can be grown and presented. The display of food can become a real assault on the senses, and we want to channel that in a way; it’s textural, it looks beautiful, and it puts you in proximity with nature and all the psychological benefits that brings with it. The second strand was the changing society around Islington over the years. It has humble origins, and hospitality was ingrained from the start with the provision of inns and people visiting on their way to the city. But then there’s also the more lavish side with the pleasure gardens at Sadler’s Wells.
Tell us about your concept.
OB: We’re focusing on the BDC as a hub of civic activity for Islington and the wider community. A station for people visiting, or a destination for those looking to find out more about moving towards a plant-based society, whether that’s reducing out impact, or reimagining the waste production process. It’s a luxury experience, but also a kind of factory for reinventing the way that we live; a test bed of how we can improve a sector that has become quite a damaging industry in a lot of ways.
SS: The way we’re approaching this is to create a new community hub, where even if you’re a visitor you can feel a part of a holistic experience. Taking a sustainable approach can sometimes be a gimmick in hospitality, because it is an incredibly wasteful sector, but if you create a place based on a full-circle experience, where you have waste-management on-site feeding this waste back into the space as recycled elements, then you really start to engage guests as an active participant.
NDK: it’s also tapping into wider issues, like how the pandemic showed how fragile our food supply chains really are. There’s a lot of thought on a regional and national level now going in to how we can better grow food locally, and our concept builds on some of these ideas. But it also goes beyond food, and looks to the processes that underpin it – things like plant material, and how this can be reincorporated as packaging, skincare, and clothes.
How does it respond to the local area?
OB: The key driver is to unlock the site. The BDC has a great location, and it’s very prominent, but people tend to walk past and never really through, because you often need a ticket to do so. The starting point was to do away with that and introduce this idea of the civic plaza, positioning it as a space to congregate. It responds not so much by taking away anything from the building but reclaiming some of the space that it has occupied.
SS: The public aspect is the most exciting, and the open plaza really plays to the history of the building as a social space. Feeling like you are part of something, like you are really living in a place, even if it’s just for a couple of days, is such an important part of hotel design today.
The Glasshouse Urban Retreat will be revealed alongside three other visions on 27 & 28 November as part of an immersive gallery installation in HIX LDN's brand new Gallery Hall. Claim your free pass here for a front row seat.