Dexter Moren - 10 things I’ve learned about design
In the first of a new feature, hotel design specialist Dexter Moren, of Dexter Moren Associates, tells Pamela Buxton the most important things he’s learned in his 20 years in the design business
1 YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW YOUR HEART, AND DO WHAT YOU'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT I did an MBA at one point and might have gone into the business world rather than into design and earned far more. But I wouldn't have been any good at it, and I like to think I'm a half-decent hotel designer. Ultimately, you should do what you're good at.
2 YOU ONLY NEED 20 MINUTES TO PRESENT AN IDEA One of the best things I learned as a student at Columbia University was presentation technique - we had only 20 minutes to present before we were cut off. It was a fantastic experience. It just focuses your mind on what you're about. You don't have time to rabbit on about your intellectual foibles, which too many architects and designers do. It's like newspaper headlines - you have to have something memorable to engage the audience. Focus on a headline-grabbling tagline that will sell your concept.
3 NEVER FORGET THE CLIENT'S NEEDS Clients need to feel that you've embraced their problem and delivered something that's special but rooted within commercial reality. Don't be precious. It's the client and the project that's precious to us. Nothing is ever not our problem. We're here to help. We always go back a year after completion to solve any problems and learn from the design.
4 DON'T HAVE STOCK SOLUTIONS We don't have a house style but instead respond to the brief and location for our ideas. For the Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington for example we got inspiration for the interior design from the collections of the museums. Ultimately, you have to make something that works - a project is a mix of design expression and functionality. Hotels are very complex animals and the challenge, especially on five-star projects where you have more components to play with, is to make every element work together.
5 THE RANGE OF HOTELS HAS INCREASED ENORMOUSLY during my career. Now you have concepts like the windowless bedroom becoming acceptable at the budget end of the market. It's really only an extension of the windowless ship's cabin idea, which no-one thinks twice about. With a hotel room, you're buying a night's sleep and you really only need a decent bed, darkness and quiet, so what's the problem with being windowless? Budget-end rooms are getting smaller, and baths are on the way out. Five-star hotels still have to deliver a high quality of service but in a more efficient way than ever before. Another thing that's changed is that lobbies have become very important. Before, they were like railway stations in that people spent little time there before going up their room. Suddenly, especially in the middle market and with brands such as Citizen M, they've become much more interactive places with cafes and a variety of seating, including places to work at and chairs to lounge in. Instead of being a dead space, it's a revenue zone.
6 TECHNOLOGY IS HAVING A MASSIVE IMPACT ON HOTELS for both check-in and room management. At Premier Inn, for example, you don't queue at a reception but go to a machine, input your booking code and out comes a key. People will increasingly be checking in online like they do for air travel. In five-star hotels, they will be checked in by staff using hand-held devices at any point they like after the front door - the lobby, the lift, the corridor, the bedroom. Mobile phones will be able to activate hotel doors. Technology is making individual choice better. Already, people can set the mood and ambience they want in their rooms by controlling temperature, music and lighting - the limit is only how much of a Luddite you are.
7 TEAMWORK IS EVERYTHING For me, the most exciting thing about my work is working with a team. The art of growing as a practice is delegating and trusting people to do things, even though they won't necessarily do things in the same way as you would. When working on a team with other design practices, the most important thing is to leave your ego at the door, though unfortunately not everyone does.
8 YOU CAN'T DESIGN HOTELS WITHOUT STAYING IN LOTS OF THEM Very often you find the most hare-brained stuff and absolutely mad spatial considerations. I'm like a trainspotter when I go into a hotel, constantly evaluating how well everything works. You learn a lot from things like that.
9 KEEP WORKING AT IT I like to think we'd be in the top five when people think about hotel designers, but you have to keep working at it. You have to stay up to date and keep challenging yourself to not get stuck in a rut. Each project is like planting a seed - in time they start sprouting but you have to keep planting.
10 YOU DON'T GET ANY SPECIAL PERKS AS A HOTEL DESIGNER, although occasionally you'll get to stay for an opening week test. But the real perk is being involved in an industry that's challenging and exciting. It's a lot more interesting to be a specialist in hotel design than in, for example, designing sheds!
By Dexter Moren
