In a two-part series Downtown Design speaks to top restaurant design firms about designing for the food and beverage industry.
This week we are in conversation with H2R, a London & Dubai based design studio that designs destinations, environments, brands and experiences.
Established by Husain and Hasan Roomi and run along with their partner Jacqui Shaddock, H2R is a growing team of driven and inspired individuals who come with broad global experience. With a passion for creating exciting spaces for people the team live, love and breathe design.
H2R designs destinations, environments, bespoke furniture and fittings, brand identity and experiences, with a primary focus on the hospitality and retail sectors.
What best describes your style and approach to design?
We don’t define ourselves with a particular style but have a well-rounded approach to all of our projects. The inspiration for all our designs starts with the client brief, the essence of the brand, the innate personality of the space, and the conceptual story all combine to inspire our designs: to create spaces with influence and soul, spaces with meaning and depth. It’s not just about creating “pretty” spaces but functional, operational, essential and collaborative.
Tell us a little bit about the first food and beverage project you designed in Dubai and what you learnt from it
The first food and beverage we designed in Dubai was Tom & Serge in Al Quoz. Tom & Serg represents a culinary meeting of minds bringing the spirit of Melbourne’s urban laneway culture to the residents of Dubai. The clients brief was to create a space that reflected their passion for food, their creativity, and their commitment to quality while expressing a bit of the rebellious, anti-establishment attitude that keeps the Tom & Serg experience surprising, fun and a bit cheeky. Being our first project in Dubai, we learnt a lot about approval and construction processes in the Middle East, which perhaps shuffled some of our priorities around slightly during our design process - some of the things we took for granted in London, like the availability of beautiful textured reclaimed materials, were a bit more challenging here, so we make sure to dedicate the time early on to sourcing and ensuring the final products are fit for the concept.
The Middle East is seeing a rise in the culture of beautifully designed restaurants serving great food, how do you think good design heightens the gastronomical experience?
We believe that good design heightens every experience. With media (social and otherwise) the way it is, people have generally already seen images of a restaurant’s space and branding before they arrive. The environment is the first thing they see on arrival –it creates the first point of communication for the brand story, and the design on the restaurant effects all of our senses: sight (lighting, finishes); sound (acoustic treatments); smell (openness of kitchen, mechanical services); and touch (seating comfort, cutlery, textures). If the story is consistent and well developed, the gastronomic side of the concept then adds the next layer, resulting in the clarity of story that an amazing restaurant experience needs.
What design challenges are exclusive to food and beverage, and hospitality design?
Unassumingly, hospitality design requires an in depth understanding of social psychology! It requires an ability to get inside the heads of the multiple user types that need to feel comfortable in a venue. It also involves designing spaces that can have very different moods and functions from day to day, and even throughout the course of one day.
Please tell us about one of your most challenging projects and why?
It’s difficult to be too specific about the challenges of a project - with The Artisan we had such a wonderful client and a beautiful concept to work with, but there were a few tricky base build MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) and services issues that reared their head far too late in the design process. This led to a few stressful moments on site, and some complete re-designs. Also, the level of detail involved in a concept as refined as an Enoteca Pinchiorri restaurant meant the knock on effect of minor changes was extreme, and all needed to be coordinated vigorously! We were lucky to be working with fantastic contractors and MEP designers, so we all survived and are in love with the result!
What do you think is the future of restaurant and bar design? What trends do you see emerging?
We are at a time where there is no one valid aesthetic direction. There are millions of different trends we could discuss, all of them perfectly acceptable, that could become hugely successful venues, which is why following ‘trends’ in aiming for success can be very misleading.
Consumers are more discerning now, and the only thing that really matters is the seamless execution of a good idea. A strong, well defined story, and authenticity in the delivery of that story. The narrative of a venue’s concept has to feel real, it can’t be forced, and everything must hang off the concept naturally.
So the future of restaurant and bar design sees us (the interior and branding professionals), working far more closely with the chefs, the managers, the musicians, and anyone else who has any kind of impact on the overall experience.
Which city in the world would you see as the best for emerging restaurant/hospitality design?
Right now, Dubai is the place to be! We are in the centre of the well-travelled world. We are designing for a client and end user that has seen the world (and usually gets back to see it often), so we need to be on our game!
What would be your dream project/commission?
We would have loved to have collaborated with Zaha Hadid on a project love to design a cultural landmark!
What advice would you give to budding restaurant/hospitality designers?
Don’t focus on the architectural design without considering the whole user experience. For a venue to be successful, all the elements of the concept need to be fundamentally linked and working together. Trust your instincts, but don’t be too stubborn to challenge your own thinking.
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