James Dilley shares his top 10 tips
Jestico + Whiles’ head of hospitality, hotel and interior design teams, James Dilley, imparts his knowledge on 10 things he’s learned over his career to date…
Words by Pamela Buxton
1 Interior designers are discriminated against. In my experience you don't find this so much in Italy or Spain, but the further north you go in Europe the less it seems interior design is respected as a profession. At Jestico + Whiles we have actively pursued interior design appointments, and have learned a lot from the interior design specialism that we have built within the practice. We have consciously blurred the boundaries between interiors and architecture, so that each informs the other.
2 I'm fascinated by the concept of hospitality. When I first started at Jestico + Whiles we were just finishing work on The Hempel, which really brought the boutique hotel concept to London for the first time. After this, I worked on One Aldwych - a project which stretched over three years, and triggered my interest in hospitality.
Hotels design combines a diverse set of functions such as residential, entertainment, restaurants, spas and gyms, even cinemas. All of these elements need to work seamlessly and holistically to successfully create an uplifting and memorable experience.
The sector is changing all the time, which keeps it attractive. Currently we are finding that travellers want connectivity, sociability and a sense of place and community. For example, we find we are designing communal tables in many restaurants and incorporating more bar seating for those dining on their own. We're finding that some hotels have no necessity for restaurants any more since people are more likely to want to eat out, to properly engage with the city.
3 Hospitality clients are an exciting typology! It is a competitive industry and they have to be ballsy to succeed, so the clients are generally inspirational characters - and I very much enjoy that.
The projects are always unpredictable but exciting. Often they are slightly mad ideas or sites that others haven't been able to make work, but our clients can because of their vision and ambition. Creating something unique and unforgettable with them is where the fun is for us. We like to keep our brains active, and we only take on projects that tick at least two of our three key boxes - that they are fun to do, that we can learn from them, and that they are a profitable opportunity!
4 Service + environment = experience. Gordon Campbell Gray, our client at One Aldwych, taught me that to create the right hotel experience you need a seamless merger of service and environment.
5 Sense of place is a key design driver. Contextual narrative is very important to us. The days of the roll-out hotel have well and truly gone. People don't want to travel the world only to have the same generic, universal experience in every hotel they stay in. Instead, they want the flavour of the local environment to come through in the design narrative. This approach is far more enjoyable for the designer - the research is fascinating. If you dig deep enough, there's always plenty of context to draw on. For example, our concept for hotel in the desert in New Mexico drew on Navajo patterning and astrological diagrams. For a hotel in Chelyabinsk in the Urals, we drew inspiration from the endless miles of silver birch forests we drove through.
The Alston Bar & Beef, Glasgow, by Jestico + Whiles
6 Luxury isn't a static concept. When I was young the top hotels had a real cachet, and their spirit of luxury had an aspirational quality. But at some point they began to lose their mystique - maybe as people began to travel more - and that cachet began to fade.
Now it's come back. Luxury isn't any longer about huge chandeliers and massive spaces. Instead, it's about thought and care, stripping out the superfluous icons of luxury that have been adopted, such as chocolates on beds, and focusing on creating a memorable, unique, and truly exciting experience. Even select service hotels aren't necessarily less luxurious - they've just taken out all the other things that aren't essential.
7 Hospitality is very levelling. Because it's about how you live, everyone's opinion is valuable, whether you're new to the job or have 20 years' experience.
8 It's a business that keeps you on your toes. The work is never easy but it's always satisfying - you learn a lot on every project and come into contact with some really inspirational individuals. Recently we've been talking to some Russian clients who are enthusiastic about rediscovering their pride in their rich cultural heritage, forgotten for a century, and we are consciously reflecting this in the hotel design.
9 My life can be quite peculiar. I can be in Sierra Leone one week, Tbilisi the next, then Melbourne the week afterwards, meeting great people all the time. You might even find yourself flying out to India for an afternoon meeting. It puts a lot of things in perspective. The breadth of experience is very stimulating.
10 I'm lucky in that I've worked on a series of once-in-a-lifetime projects. Not many people can say that.
