It has been a decade since megastar designer Philippe Starck conceived the design for J Plus Hotel in Causeway Bay.
"In hotel years it's a massive amount of time," says Gustav Szabo, a senior designer at Starck's London-based Yoo Studio. A decade of wear and tear meant an overhaul was needed, so J Plus turned to its original design team for a redesign, which was unveiled last month.
J Plus, formerly known as Jia Hong Kong, opened at the corner of Irving and Pennington streets in 2004. While it was arguably the first design-forward hotel in Hong Kong, it now has no shortage of competition, including Hotel Icon, W Hotel, the Upper House and Mira Moon (which was also designed by Yoo). J Plus' revamp aims to reassert the hotel in an increasingly crowded market.
"Bringing in contemporary pieces, more visually striking pieces, has become much more common, and there's also a lot more art being brought into hotels," says Yoo Studio co-founder John Hitchcox. "People are looking for something that's not too corporate."
That was certainly the case with J Plus. Starck approached his design for the hotel with his usual irreverence, bathing the lobby in white curtains and juxtaposing baroque furniture with contemporary pieces. When it came to the redesign, Szabo says they had to be "really respectful" of Starck's original vision. "It's a subtle change, not a turn-it-on-its-head and redo-it approach," he says.
That meant a splash of colour and some new design elements. First, the hotel's two-storey podium was overhauled to create a more prominent entrance, featuring a large Renaissance-themed mural by the local branch of British art studio Graffiti4Hire, which is meant to give the property a more notable street presence.
Inside, Starck's original white curtains were replaced with drawn-up strings of beads to reveal the bustle of the street outdoors - and to allow passers-by to peer into the lobby.