26 the World Of Hospitality
Donovan Bar
“Design Alchemy”Muza Lab redesigns
Donovan Bar at Brown’
s Hotel
Bars
Working in collaboration with Olga Polizzi,
Inge Moore, co-founder of Muza Lab,
together with Severine Lammoglia, has
redesigned the Donovan Bar at Brown’s
Hotel. Introducing new levels of glamour and
visual seduction to a destination recalling one
of the 20th Century’s most celebrated fashion
photographers, Terence Donovan, the new bar
has doubled in size, views have been opened
up onto the classic Mayfair street outside and
it now has its own street entrance.
The new design is a balance of reflection
and shade, shimmering surfaces and matt
finishes, and tones layered one on top of
another as found in photography. It is a room
seen through the lens of an imaginary camera
that comes to life like an image emerging in
a photographic darkroom providing a canvas
for Donovan’s photography to star. The
backdrop is classically English - as befits a
gracious Georgian building. The colour palette
combines British racing green with tones of
white to grey, reminiscent of Donovan’s work.
The new, longer bar has been moved centre
stage, its magnificent glass bar counter sitting
on top of a bronzed panel glimmering like
water in an over-sized photographer’s wet
tray; the back-bar design is made of glass and
gold metal. The bar front is in a ribbed grey
leather with painted panelling. Elsewhere,
Florentine tables tops from Il Bronzetto are
cast in etched glass and have bronze bases.
A focus for the designers was the creation
of contemporary new wall mouldings to act
as a frame for each work in the collection
of Donovan’s photography. Pierre Frey and
Website: www.roccofortehotels.com
Dedar fabrics are of velvet, leather and silk
in bold, dark bottle green and gold and the
original stained-glass windows have been
retained.
Arriving via the new street entrance, guests
find themselves in a corridor lined with
Donovan’s photography, in effect an intimate
gallery and prelude to what is to come in the
bar.
“We have created a new destination for local
people as well as for hotel guests,” says Inge
Moore. “The legacy of Terence Donovan was
fabulous to work with, not just in terms of the
glamorous collection of his photography that
we had at our fingertips but in the narrative it
lent to our design concept.”