African project
Radisson Blu Hotel and Residence – South Africa
legacy. The current scheme builds on
this within a contemporary context.
The glamour of travel
While international hotel sentiment is
starting to favour a more pared-down
aesthetic, this scheme explores the
glamour of urban travel destinations
within the context of sensible modern
relevance.
What sustainable initiatives are
being implemented in the design?
As a studio, we firmly believe that
sustainable design starts with
something as simple as ‘good’ design.
If buildings are designed well,
sustainability would be intuitive
rather than an added layer. For
example, we elected to retain large
areas of natural stone cladding
and even to rework some timber
cladded areas to suit the new scheme.
This meant less waste, especially
of precious natural materials. The
building itself was designed to
provide as much natural light as
possible to as much of its floorplate
as it could. We peeled some elements
back to capitalize on this.
What challenges have been
encountered during the project and
how are these going to be overcome?
Repurposing existing buildings as
hotels always brings restrictive
parameters. Especially when the
original building was not designed
as a hotel, which requires far more
specialized services, circulation
sensitivity and areas of particular
sizes than a typical building. However,
challenge brings opportunity. It means
we have to work a little harder to solve
the puzzle that will eventually become
a successful scheme. As a studio we
relish this challenge.
3D renderings of the new facilities