The Essence of Interior Design (June 2013) | Page 60

PLACE AND TIME

EXPO GRAND HYATT

By the moment you are on the way up from the ground floor lobby, and just before you reach the main reception
area, a new sense of anticipation for what the door will open up to is very important. It would be anti climatic if
the transition space is design to be busy and cluttered.
The reception lobby is supposed to be the grand welcome for the guests as this will have both the spatial as well
personal interaction.
Thus, we have proposed to have a higher ceiling at the reception area and have exposed the row of columns. This
will define the space and will give more opportunity to elaborate more on the ceiling feature. Once you arrive at
this place, the bright and open garden outside becomes a strong visual magnet that becomes a disadvantage to
the interior. But instead of separating the outside elements, we treat it as an integral part of the interior like an
internal courtyard of a shikumen house. In this way, we turn the disadvantage into a plus factor.