�THERE IS NO GAP BETWEEN WORK AND LEISURE ANYMORE”
NC
HOTELS ARE INCREASINGLY
PLACES WHERE YOU BRING
YOUR WORK WITH YOU —
WHETHER IT’S A BUSINESS
HOTEL OR NOT. VERY FEW
OF US CAN COMPLETELY
LEAVE WORK BEHIND. IS IT
POSSIBLE TO CREATE HO-
TELS THAT ALLOW YOU TO
ESCAPE AND WORK?
RC
Well, I think the idea here
was to create something
transformational. I’ve thought
of every room as a suite, that
is why the lobby looks the
way it does. I never sat in a
lobby to read the newspaper
in a traditional hotel. I sit by
myself in my room – and 80
percent of people who travel
for business travel by them-
selves – I am scared to go
down and sit in the lobby. Or
I have to go and sit in the
restaurant and have lunch or
breakfast.
That was really at the basis
of the concept; giving people
a place to hang out, network
and work. There are spaces
downstairs for meetings, to
work with your laptop – that
is what is transformational.
And that is why we are put-
ting a lot of effort into the
lobbies and workspaces. This
is a working hotel. There is
no gap between work and
leisure anymore.
We just want to challenge
every single thing about nor-
mal hotels. Go to most hotels
and ask for a bottle of water
and it can take 40 minutes.
Or if you want a coffee the
concierge has to drive you
to a coffee shop. It’s such
a hassle, all of it. We just
started with a list of things
that we didn’t like about
hotels,
there
were
about
a hundred of them, and said
we weren’t going to do them.
We built a business model
around
doing
something
else. That is why there is free
Wi-Fi, Skype rate phone calls,
lots of free TV content, U.K.,
U.S. and European outlets,
a USB charger at every work-
station in every room and a
24-hour canteen where you
can get sandwiches, sushi or
a cup of coffee. There is an
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you can just walk in, do your
thing and walk out.
Born in Delhi but based in Holland since the early 1970s, Rattan Chadha founded the fashion
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concept in hotels. The chain – there are branches in Amsterdam, Glasgow and London, with
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free Wi-Fi, iMac-equipped workstations and sofa-and-plasma-screen chill-out areas. Making his
vision a reality, Chadha has worked closely with Vitra in developing a unique look for the chain.
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INTERVIEW BY NICK COMPTON
NC
A LOT OF HOTELS SEEM
TO OFFER TOO MUCH SER-
VICE, WHICH MOST PEOPLE
AREN’T
THAT
COMFORT-
ABLE WITH OR ARE TOO IM-
PATIENT TO BE BOTHERED.
HOTELS DON’T ALLOW FOR
SELF-SUFFICIENCY.
ULTI-
MATELY, TOO MUCH SER-
VICE CAN FEEL STIFLING.
RC
Exactly, so the focus here was
on a great bed, great shower,
great
entertainment,
free
Wi-Fi and a fan tastic place
to network downstairs. We
don’t want you to be in your
room. We don’t want you
standing in queues to check-
in, and the same for check
out. We don’t have nine but-
lers waiting around to starch
your shirt because a lot of
people don’t want that.
NC
MOST HOTEL LOBBIES ARE
THESE VAST SPACES THAT
NOBODY REALLY USES EX-
CEPT TO WAIT FOR THE
RAIN TO STOP.
ML
And the restaurant is used
four hours a day and the rest
of the time is a dark empty
hole. You come to a hotel
for an experience and you
come for warmth, otherwise
it doesn’t stick. The environ-
ment we create is on a very
human scale.
NC
WHAT DID YOU LOOK AT
IN TERMS OF A MODEL FOR
HOW THE LOBBY WORKS?
RC
I think with the lobby we
were really thinking about
a living room, about the
things that you do when
you go home. You dump
your stuff, you have a quick
shower, and you go to your
study or to your living room.
It is the same here, you grab
something to eat and go and
watch some TV in the chill
out area – there are remote
controls down there – or you
sit down and do some work.
So it really was built around
the idea of what people do in
their home environment.
It is designed to encourage
interaction. There are long
benches at the cafe.
148
WORKSPIRIT
