“WE work from the scale of the city down to the detail of a door handle.” So reads one of the strap lines on the homepage of Foster+Partners’ website. As I discovered when, aged 22, I took my first proper job with the world-renowned architectural practice, this isn’t just marketing blurb. Fresh from the mess and scruff of student life, at F+P I was treated to an immersion in design detail unlike any I have been subjected to before or since. In all aspects of their work, from their Thames-side design studio – where everything from the rubbish bins to the colour of the post-it notes has been agonised over, to their buildings worldwide – the Millau Viaduct, the Gherkin, a space port – their ambitions towards perfection are always evident.
Roll on nine years and it was with much excitement that I went to visit the newly opened ME London Hotel, by Melia, the first hotel designed inside and out by F+P. Situated in a prime location on the corner of Aldwych on London’s Strand, F+P aimed to ‘restore a little lost glamour to the heart of the west end’. And indeed they have.
Faced in Portland stone and completing the curve of Aldwych’s crescent, the exterior of the building marries in with the existing urban grain, meeting the brief and requirements from Westminster Council and English Heritage. I enter the hotel via an elegant elliptical tower which marks the hotel’s entrance from the Strand and opens onto a ground floor foyer space serving both the hotel and the associated public restaurants. So far – so chic – and so modest. At this point I am directed to the hotel’s lobby which, unusually, is located at first floor.
Now, in telling you what I’m about to tell you, I feel the person who, halfway through a film, tells you how it will end. But walking into ME’s lobby is a little like entering a Bond villain’s layer. A pyramidal space rising nine storeys through the building and simply clad in white, triangular, marble tiles which follow the geometry of the space, this room – the inner sanctum of the building – is unimaginable when entering from its polite exterior.
People often talk about something having the wow-factor – but this room does, eliciting this exact word from the lips of every person who enters. Many – myself included- whip out their iPhones and start snapping away, trying to capture its magic. Glazed at the top, a ray of light beams down and, to add to the space-age ambience, a light installation showing a shawl of rising jellyfish is projected onto the marble walls. Unfortunately the breathtaking and innovative design is accompanied by the same horrendous chilled house music which seems to invade every contemporary hotel I have the pleasure of visiting. But I digress.
Sitting back on the curved leather sofas, looking up into the space, I wonder what inspired this ambitious shape. “We have used load-bearing masonry on the exterior of the building and so needed to make the steel frame very stiff in order to stop movement” says F+P Partner Giles Robinson. “The triangular form is inherently rigid and is a wonderful shape with which to create a solid volume.” Robinson goes on to explain to me that in the first iteration of the design, for a different client, the lobby space started at Ground Floor. When Sol Melia came onboard, however, they wanted the restaurants to share a lounge at ground floor which could be entered from the street. F+P were adamant that the hotel lobby should be a dedicated space and so moved it to the first floor, with the resultant drama and surprise a fortunate accident.
Having Sol Melia as a client has worked in the design’s favour in a number of ways: The decision, for example, to retain F+P as designer of both the outside and the inside of the building has given them the opportunity to create something really special. “Culturally [in hotel design] there is a shell and core architect and one that does the interiors. That central space couldn’t have been created with that arrangement. It is only due to the continuity that we have been able to create a space like the lobby” says Robinson.
From the lobby I take the lift to my room. Walking through the corridor, every inch of the place is polished and perfect, with more triangular tiles lining the walls –this time black onyx– and shiny surfaces galore. The puddle-jumping eight-year-old inside me is desperate to leave a grubby finger-print on the polished lift door but, accompanied by a member of staff who is lavishing me with generosity, I refrain.
My suite – The Chic – is a monochrome sanctuary. White leather lines the walls while a slick black unit houses the TV and sound systems. The only colour is found in the lighting – controlled with touch screen panels, complete with hot pink “sexy” setting, and, as Robinson is keen to point out, not part of the design. “ The IT and lighting systems are more complex than we would have liked. But they are Melia’s standard systems and they wanted us to incorporate them” he says, clearly irritated by the dent this small concession has made to the overall finish.
After exploring the lounge (enormous), the bedroom (enormous) and the bed (enormous), I take a turn in the lavish marble bathroom, complete with huge bath, double shower and double sink – luxurious touches which are both practical and inspire romance. Less romantic, but just as practical, are the finishing touches. The look of incredulity on my partner’s face when I celebrate the discovery of a hair band amongst the bits and bobs supplied in the bathroom not only serves to demonstrate his lack of understanding when it comes to the needs of the long-haired amongst us, but also the attention to detail that the designers and the hotel operators have gone to. They really have considered everything and have put a great deal of thought into how a space is used.
The hotel is also home to a rooftop bar – Rooftop Radio – which, with spanking views to Westminster and the river – is bound to be very popular with London socialites. Downstairs, the STK restaurants – one Italian, one focusing on steak – serve excellent, if not show-stopping, food at very reasonable prices. If you need one reason to visit, however, make it the lobby.
by Emilie Lemons