Crystal Talk
Text: Norman KietzmannPhotos: Torsten Seidel, Tim Beddows, Ken Hayden, Eric Laignel

Interview

Hirsch Bedner Associates/HBA


Inge Moore’s world is one of atmosphere. Since 2001, this native-born South African has been creating spaces where people feel safe and secure – even at the other end of the world. As principal and chief designer in the London office of Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA), she creates the interiors of hotels, restaurants and spas in Europe, Asia and North Africa. That her studio is not located in an ordinary office building but in a charming, former dance hall in the district of Notting Hill is hardly surprising. In the middle of the space that is awash with light and surrounded by a gallery, a huge white table holds a prominent position. Countless material samples and fabric swatches are spread out upon it like valuable treasures. They are used to capture the character, the feel or the color palette of future projects. An interview about annoying water faucets, boxes for people and the significance of a simple cheese sandwich.

Ms. Moore, you are entrusted with hotel projects around the world, which have already been hosts to millions of overnight guests. Your current projects include the Hotel Alpina in Gstaad, the St. Regis in Rome, the Hotel Alfonso XIII in Seville and the Ritz Carlton on Mauritius. What does home mean for you?

Inge Moore:
My home is where I come from. I was born in South Africa. My parents have a huge farm there. So I’m a real country girl (laughs). You don’t encounter anyone, just serene and beautiful nature. When I’m there, I spend lots of time with my parents and aunts, who live not far away. For me, London is more like homework. I’m quite a homebody and I rarely go out, even though everyone always wants to drag me along to parties (laughs).


Are there things you’ve taken with you from South Africa?

Inge Moore:
I’m a tremendous collector and always find new things. I have a collection of African headrests, which I love more than anything. I always also bring a few things to London from our house in Africa, and vice versa. I think a home is basically nothing other than a box. It’s the things that you fill it with that really create the place. Hotels are also just boxes. The question is: how can people feel comfortable in these boxes?

The feeling of home must also be transported across cultural boundaries. How do you accomplish this?

Inge Moore:
A hotel must be a place where you can relax and feel safe. Only then can you feel comfortable. What’s wonderful about this work is that we can learn a lot about other cultures, and the things that we encounter locally be incorporated into our projects. It very much depends on whether we’re dealing with a resort hotel or a business hotel in the city. In that kind of hotel, people seldom stay longer than 24 hours. But if they are spending one or two weeks of precious vacation time at one particular location, that opens up a whole grab bag of options we can play with. What we then design is a comprehensive experience. After all, those guests have time during their stay to discover all the stories we want to tell with our spaces. That way they not only have memories of the country to take home, but also ones of their hotel room.


What does luxury mean to you?

Inge Moore:
Luxury gives one the feeling of being special. When you arrive somewhere and feel loved and cared for. You can enjoy the time you spend there, and you want to take a piece of it with you when you head home. That’s why the things around you must exude something extraordinary. Even a cocktail tray can be a fond discovery. Things that are so special you don’t know where they come from or how to get them. That’s my idea of luxury.

Is that why you have 80 percent of the furnishings and fittings custom made for each hotel?

Inge Moore:
Yes, the great thing about hotels is that they need the quantities required for custom solutions. Many interior designers take the easy way out and use the same catalogs again and again. It’s disappointing to see how often the same mirrors or light fixtures are used. That’s why we don’t use catalogs with things that anyone can buy. Many of our clients are amazed at how much detail goes into a room. A typical sketchbook that we submit for a new hotel project has far more than a thousand pages of designs. In addition, there’s a whole library of specifications, colors, materials and surface finishes. We even specify the embroidery pattern of the pillows.


When you approach the design of new interiors, what is your first step?


Inge Moore:
First and foremost is always the building. When you enter it for the first time, it automatically begins to speak with you. Every building has special qualities that must be discovered. The surroundings must also be explored and integrated. We have designed a restaurant in a very contemporary building in St. Petersburg. There are beautiful woods outside the city. Russia has this folklore, after all, with wizards, fairies and other creatures in the woods. We wanted to include these themes in the restaurant and tell stories about them.

The firm Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA) has offices around the world, including in Beijing, Dubai, Melbourne, Singapore and Tokyo. The London office, where you began working in 2001 and became principal in 2008, is the only one in Europe. What is the difference between your work and that of your colleagues?

Inge Moore:
The offices are very different and each has its own culture. We are a total of thirteen partners who each runs an office and also shapes it by virtue of their own personality. In London we are naturally closely bound to the European culture, even though I myself have African roots. Most notably, crafted details play a much greater role with us than in the offices in Singapore and Hong Kong, where hundreds of people work. The projects there are considerably larger and the clients want something completely different than here. I think this diversity is also where HBA’s quality lies. We are not fixated on a particular market or style. We receive most of our commissions directly through word of mouth from people who have seen our hotels or stayed in them. We sometimes also take part in competitions. When we have a close working relationship with clients, we also work with them on other projects outside of Europe. That explains why we designed the spa in the Ritz Carton Hotel in Hong Kong from London instead of the local office there. Sometimes that creates some friction. But that’s normal in any large family. (laughs)



You were just speaking about clients’ expectations. Is the concept of anonymous hotel chains obsolete?

Inge Moore:
Clients definitely expect more now than ten years ago. That becomes apparent if you think about how often our parents stayed in hotels as compared to us today. No generation uses hotels as frequently and commonly as we do. The Hilton hotels were known for looking the same everywhere in the world. You knew what you were getting. Today people want the opposite. You can also see that on travel portals like TripAdvisor. There are now a huge number of comments about interior design. People always used to think that no one would be interested in that.

The interior has become a real sales factor...

Inge Moore:
Definitely. Why do you select a certain hotel where you are staying? The competition is high. The choice has increased enormously in recent years. Every building needs its own spirit. The hotel chains do provide the same basics. But they also need to give you a reason to book a room there.


For hotels, the bars and restaurants are primarily what serve as their interface to the city at large. They are also visited by people who are not staying at the hotel. To what extent does this play a role in your design?

Inge Moore:
Restaurants and bars are like stages. In this regard, the bar at the Alfonso XIII hotel in Seville was interesting. It was a wonderful old hotel. But no one used the restaurants and the bar. The question was how to make them relevant to the locals. So we put tapas and local dishes to the menu instead of just typical hotel food. I think most hotels still serve dreadful food, although the situation has improved dramatically in recent years. It’s important that you can also get regular food in a hotel, like a simple cheese sandwich and not just extravagant things.


When did you become interested in interior design?

Inge Moore:
When I was young, I built homes for my dolls on the shelves in my bedroom. At the age of 13, I redecorated my mother’s house and put new wallpaper on the walls. Before that, I had told my mother that she didn’t have any taste (laughs). Then I also redesigned the bathroom. I was lucky that I was allowed to create things when I was young. Later I then studied interior design.

How did you get into the hotel business?

Inge Moore:
I started with the design of exhibitions at Museum Africa in Johannesburg. That was my first job. It was wonderful, because I learned a lot about presenting things properly. Then I moved on to an architectural firm, where I designed the interiors of six large casinos. That was also exciting, because they are an entirely different world of fantasy and escapism. But I soon had enough of those busloads of people who sit behind slot machines, inserting coins. I wanted to do something else. From there I moved to London and started working at HBA.


You are also constantly traveling on business. What outrages you when you check into a new hotel?

Inge Moore:
When I can’t use the water faucets! Although I am a designer, I always have to fight with them. In a way, it’s an insult to the guests. At home we have the time and patience to find out how something works. But why do we have to learn how to use everything in hotels, where we often spend just one night? Even with reading lights, I often can’t find the switch and then simply pull the plug. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s important that things are easy to use.

Hotels are the static part of traveling. What about the mobile things: Would you also design the interior of a train, a boat or a plane?


Inge Moore:
I would love to design a train. Airplanes, too, because they are so boring. I would try to make them more human and give them more of a tactile sensation. You must be able to touch interiors. They must feel good. Trains, above all, were much nicer before, because people spent more time in them. Today they are becoming increasingly more functional. I think that we need to restore the balance between comfort and functionality. Both aspects have to come together to ensure that the human touch is not lost. We’re all just human. That’s why things be should simple. Just not too clever!

Thank you very much for the interview.


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Interview: Norman Kietzmann
Norman Kietzmann studied industrial design in Berlin and Paris, and writes as a freelance journalist about architecture and design for Baunetz, Designlines, Pure, Deutsch, amongst others. He lives and works in Milan.

project management: Andrea Nakath