SAUNTER DOWN Arbuthnot Road in Central and you'll find another glitzy entrance gentrifying the street, now home to such trend-setting establishments as Veda, Chez Moi, the Centrium complex and the short-lived but much-hyped Curve bar.
This new addition displays all the signs of another cool drinking den - chocolate brown facade, oversized glass door, stainless-steel slats and trendy name (ovolo) in discreet lower case letters. Inside, the entrance further augments the nightclub atmosphere. UFO-style spotlights shine down on a counter where a snooty doorbitch might turn you away, and a gigantic cast-aluminium spherical sculpture, based on a magnified plankton, by local silversmith Will Jamieson, hangs next to a wall studded with polished aluminium eggs.
The bar-like decor is unsurprising, considering the visionaries behind the project are the award-winning design team, KplusK, who created the former Jah bar and Liquid nightclub. But rather than the latest intimidatingly trendy bar, ovolo is a new block of cutting-edge serviced apartments.
The brainchild of Girish Jhunjhnuwala, owner of the contemporary bar and Indian restaurant, Veda, two doors away, and former bar, Somras, on Hollywood Road, ovolo is aimed at those looking for a more stylish short stay experience. 'I wanted to create a sanctuary for professional people, somewhere they could really feel relaxed and pampered,' says Paul Kember of KplusK. 'It had to be more than just a home, more like a boutique hotel. But I also wanted it to be somewhere they could work, so I updated and upgraded the desk idea into a proper working zone, with storage and tech connections.'
Jhunjhnuwala sees single people as likely tenants, with privacy not necessarily the priority, so the ovolo apartments have been designed to unfold completely to a single open-plan space. Should seclusion be required, the bedroom can be sealed off with a sliding partition.