Engage the Senses

Hotel group Six Senses has opened its first London hotel. Based at the Whiteley, the art deco landmark department store that has recently been redeveloped as a luxury enclave, the hotel’s interiors are by AvroKO – with plenty of contributions from the Design Centre’s showrooms.

Most notably, Heathfield & Co. has supplied all the bespoke decorative lighting for the project, an undertaking that commercial director Patrick Watson describes as “probably one of the most demanding projects we’ve worked on – a heritage building, a wellness-led brief, 109 rooms, 27 bespoke designs, and a design partner with an exceptionally high bar for detail and refinement.”

AvroKO’s Luca Ferraro says that Six Senses had to find its way in translating its very resort-centric, wellness aesthetic into its first urban hotel (it has since also opened an outpost in Rome). “You can’t approach a hotel in a city like London or Rome in the same way as the Maldives or the Caribbean, not just for operational reasons but for aesthetic ones. And you usually don’t have the same luxury of space.”

The practice started with the setting, and the building’s storied history – it was built in 1911 as one of London’s first department stores and became a local landmark for its colonnaded facade and art deco detailing. “We were incredibly lucky to have that background, and that story, to create links between the past and contemporary trends,” says Ferraro. “In the lobby, we replicated the warmth of traditional timber retail display fixtures with curved glass.”

The historic staircase that greets visitors is the only element that remains of the original Whiteleys (while the façade is listed, the interiors were not); it was repositioned from under the building’s famous dome to the hotel area. The spa level is in the basement, but it is connected to the lobby via a circular void – trees from the floor below grow tall here. There’s café, bar and restaurant on the ground floor, and a members’ club one floor up.

Of the restaurant, Ferraro says that “my favourite time of day there is definitely evening. The warm lighting is beautifully designed, and it really enables the space to have a very cosy, intimate atmosphere. The same goes for the whole ground floor and lobby space.”

Watson says that Heathfield & Co’s bespoke lighting for the project “draws on the building’s art deco and post-Victorian proportions – warm, refined and timeless rather than trend-led.” In addition, “the fittings were specified to produce a consistent colour temperature throughout the property, supporting guests’ natural circadian rhythms across different spaces and times of day, from a sunlit atrium to a spa treatment room to a guest room at 3am.”

Avroko worked with procurement company Blue Moon to deliver the project, which sourced products from across the Design Centre’s showrooms. In the restaurant, gentle texture is the watchword for the fabrics, with Zoffany’s ‘Curzon’ fabric in sage green used on the restaurant banquettes, and Misia’s ‘Gaillon’ in grège on the dining chairs.

Alongside Heathfield & Co’s lighting, in the guest rooms there are fabrics by Kirkby Design and furniture by Pierre Frey, including the ‘Venus’ side table and ‘Sao Paulo’ vanity stool. The Whiteley Suite includes additional special pieces such as Alexander Lamont’s ‘Drift’ floor lamp. Out on the terrace, high-quality, tactile performance fabrics by Perennials and Rubelli upholster the sofas and chairs.

As befits a brand that leads the way when it comes to the intersection of hospitality and wellness, Six Senses’ spa is the biggest in London, with a technologically advanced offering that includes a flotation pod, cryotherapy and 13 treatment rooms. “There’s more of a richness in texture here; more subtle details. It’s a quieter environment that tells guests that they’re really taken care of,” says Ferraro. Fabrics used here include Pierre Frey’s ‘Hendaye’ in a soft grey, used on an ottoman, and Kirkby Design’s warm, tobacco-coloured ‘Sahara’ cotton, which upholsters a sofa. Heathfield’s swirling, speckled glass ‘Indi’ lights – this time a non-bespoke item – dot the walls.

Ferraro adds that this wellness aspect in fact pervades the whole hotel – it’s certainly in Heathfield & Co’s sensual lighting, but also in the landscaping and materials. “It translates into comfort, if I had to find one word for it,” he says. “We wanted to make sure that the experience was not intimidating, as other five-star hotels can be.”

As for Heathfield & Co, Watson says that the project “demonstrates that we can operate at genuine scale without losing the handmade quality that defines what we do. Our projects team works directly with designers and procurement specialists from concept through to installation, and that depth of involvement is what makes the difference. It’s not just about supplying product – it’s about being a real collaborator across a five-year process.”