The Hari Hong Kong hotel’s interior designer talks us through applying the finishing touches remotely, locked down in London
- London-based interior designer Tara Bernerd worked remotely from lockdown on preparations for opening The Hari Hong Kong hotel, using video calls and WhatsApp
- She still hasn’t seen her creation, which recently won an award, but explains her team’s emphasis on a flexible design and ensuring a conection with nature
Tara Bernerd’s career in hotel design was kick-started by a project with Aron Harilela, so she was thrilled to be collaborating on a second Hari property, this time in the hospitality businessman’s native Hong Kong.
“It was exhilarating and at the same time heartbreaking,” Bernerd tells me of the experience when I meet her at The Hari London.
The designer temporarily closed the London headquarters of Tara Bernerd & Partners (TB&P) in February 2020, earlier than most businesses in Britain, when she saw how Covid-19 was spreading in Asia. From travelling frequently to meet clients in Asia, Europe and the United States, Bernerd and her team suddenly switched to working remotely.
“We reacted pretty fast,” she says. “Completing projects in the midst of global lockdowns has by far been our biggest challenge, but our business adjusted incredibly well. We became very good at Zoom!”