We find the correlation between hotel and residential interiors endlessly fascinating. Some will always favour the ubiquitous, luxury hotel-style design of many high-end city developments, while others prefer a scaled-back, contemporary aesthetic synonymous with space, light flow, and natural materials. Both can be successful as home environments, but it boils down to personality, detail and individuality.
Much depends on the location, choice of architect, interior designer, landscaping, and lighting experts. Modern architecture is far more challenging to execute as little can be camouflaged, so the detailing, including concealed storage, door heights, volume, and ambient lighting, needs to be perfect from the start. There is true art in creating a comfortable living space within a minimalist structure.
Some of our favourite examples include the austere work of Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus, whose modern retreats, with their clean lines and geometric shapes, blend seamlessly into the rural landscape. Tadao Ando’s reinforced concrete designs play on wind and natural light and are deeply entwined with Japanese spirituality and its connection to architectural space. Ando’s modernist style may seem abstract initially, but its core is rooted in an appreciation for nature and breathable, livable space.
Then, there are the architects whose work is uncompromisingly contemporary, including David Chipperfield, Thomas Heatherwick, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, and Jean-Michel Gathy, credited for the Aman Resorts blueprint alongside Ed Tuttle and Kerry Hill.
Rose Uniacke has a much softer contemporary style, focusing on texture, antiques, upholstered furniture, and earth tones. Meanwhile, renowned Maltese designer Francis Sultana honours the 1920s and 1930s and incorporates large-scale art, sculpture, and installation into his work.
Fine examples of modern beach-house style include Uruguay’s Jose Ignacio, Melides and Comporta on Portugal’s Atlantic coast and Ibiza and Formentera, where architects favour white concrete, natural wood and open plan living. Here, you’ll find generously sized streamlined spaces with clean lines that blend into unspoilt natural settings.
Los Angeles, London, and Lisbon are top contenders for residential urban design because of their spatial innovation, world-class master planners, and talented landscape architects. Many developments offer prominent features such as spas, winter gardens, indoor pools, movie rooms and executive offices. The idea is to combine contemporary design with comfort, function, and ease of living.
Once the architecture is in place, one needs to consider the choice of kitchen, bathroom, wardrobe system, ironmongery, sound and lighting design, and upmarket amenities such as home gyms and pools.
Turning to boutique hotel design, which, when successful, echoes our preferred living spaces, mid-20th-century or Scandinavian and Brazilian influences are found in Stockholm’s Ett Hem and The Largo in Porto. Very few boutique hotels manage to capture the perfect balance of style, ambience and home comfort, so those that do it well deserve a mention.
Often, we look to hotel design for elements that can be replicated in residential living spaces. There are many components, and each requires careful consideration and expert oversight. Ultimately, personal taste is the deciding factor, and the experts you have in place will define the result.