Design is a big part of the Naumi Hotel experience, and at Naumi Hotel Singapore, it is partly the outcome of a wide-scale collaboration with local art gallery Vue Privé. From the video installation in the lift lobby to the artworks in both public areas and guestrooms, the designer furniture and even the wayfinder signage, every element is carefully blended so that they form a cohesive part of the environment.
In the Hotel’s Chanel-inspired suite, for instance, one gets a feel of the legendary designer’s aesthetics—but not in a literal way. The camellias and the black-and-white elements are all in place, but they serve as a riff on Madam Chanel’s style rather than an attempt at recreating her Rue Cambon apartment. The Warhol-inspired suite, meanwhile, is clearly not a copy of The Factory, but an articulation of the great pop artist’s graphic, eye-popping eclecticism.
“I hire the best designers,” shares Naumi Hotels founder and CEO Surya Jhunjhnuwala, “but I get involved in (the design of) all our hotels. They have to have the soul. If you don’t get involved you could end up being just another hotel.” The design identity that he has forged with select collaborators has earned top industry and media design awards to date.
Involvement in the design process, Surya elaborates, entails decisions even on most basic elements, from choosing the toilet paper to the design of the staff uniform. “Everything goes through my office; I’m very particular. Actually, some very good designers like that. If a designer’s attitude is ‘my way or the highway’, it just doesn’t work with us.”
- A NAUMI SPIN
- GETTING IT RIGHT
- FROM CONCEPT TO EXECUTION
- GIVING IT THE LOVE
A Naumi Spin
Surya allows that the Naumi brand of luxury is in ways an extension of his home, but he does not discount other sources of inspiration. “We are all travelling around the world experiencing the best and the worst. What is the best is probably the best not because it is the most expensive, but it’s just the (one with) personal touches, the small details.”
His son Gaurang, who is CEO of Naumi Hotels Australia and New Zealand, also acknowledges global inspirations, and has maintained a keen interest in hospitality design trends. “Whenever we go on holidays, I’m always the one who is kind of looking around for nice places to stay, and something new to check out in other countries.
“We do little tweaks according the geographic location of our hotels, but we are clear that we’re a Singaporean and an Asian hotel,” Gaurang clarifies. “We will maintain that. We will embrace the neighborhood; we will embrace the local culture, but we will definitely put a Naumi spin on it.”
Besides inspirations culled from their travels, there’s another design factor that Surya considers. “I believe in feng shui, and this probably irritates the hell out of my designers,” he concedes with a laugh. For every project, he consults with a master geomancer who may prescribe certain colors, a water element, or even a layout for a room. Surya then hands these to his designers as parameters.
Geomantic principles are often incorporated in design today, with several renowned architects and designers attesting to their common sense soundness and practicality.
- A NAUMI SPIN
- GETTING IT RIGHT
- FROM CONCEPT TO EXECUTION
- GIVING IT THE LOVE
Getting It Right
“The most important lesson is to be very detailed in your approach. Everything has to be thought through and communicated very clearly prior to construction taking place so that everyone is on the same page,” Gaurang says.
“It’s very difficult to work on the design once the hotel is up and running, so a lot of our work takes place prior to the construction. We go through as many as twenty iterations of room layouts, including how high the sockets should be, how many sockets are needed, or will universal adaptors be required.” They also look into ways a guest may actually navigate his way around the room.
“We do mock-up rooms as well. Sometimes things that work on paper may not be as comfortable in real life. And we do a lot of changes after the mock up rooms. The bulk of the work takes place before the property is handed over to the contractor. It really makes a lot of difference if you really dive deep in and really work out the details from the start.”
Gaurang sees Naumi as an extension of a stylish friend’s home. “It’s not too big that you don’t get the intimacy of the hotel. The staff will remember your name, and address you as a friend – not as ‘the Guest in 301 or 302’. And they remember your preferences.”
“We also do special personalization here,” Gaurang adds. On their tenth stay, guests can look forward to their own monogrammed pillows and towels. “It’s like coming to a friend’s home where you’re welcome to stay, and that welcome is articulated in various special ways.”
- A NAUMI SPIN
- GETTING IT RIGHT
- FROM CONCEPT TO EXECUTION
- GIVING IT THE LOVE
From Concept To Execution
As head of the company’s business interests in Australia and New Zealand, Gaurang is overseeing the completion of its latest acquisition, which is slated for opening in late in the first quarter of this year.
Among the inspirations for the design of the Auckland property is the tui bird that is indigenous to New Zealand. The design team took the colors of the tui bird as inspiration for the hotel’s palette. “We have a bird lamp in the room, a bird that greets you at the door; we’re doing tiles in the bathroom that mimic the hues of the bird’s feathers,” shares Gaurang. “They’re also using a lot patterns and materials that they haven’t used before.”
The selection of artworks to bring into the hotel is also being carefully addressed: “We don’t want artworks that are just artworks. They should have some kind of relevance or reference point to the hotel.” To this end, they commissioned artist Judi Bagust to create special artworks for the hotel. “Tui birds sing when they’re in a happy mood,” Gaurang explains, and Judy has transcribed the birdsong into notes that she used as motifs in the rooms and main dining areas of the hotel.”
“We also managed to collaborate with Belynda Henry, a landscape designer from (New South Wales) Australia. She stayed at the property and drew the landscape. Her sketches were then transferred into the rugs for the hotel.”
One of the things that Gaurang particularly likes to do is to work with designers who have never designed hotels before. “In Auckland, we’re collaborating with specialists who do retail space; they’ve not done hotels previously, and that’s very interesting for us. We don’t want the traditional approach—we want them to be questioning as well: Do we really need this in a hotel room? Why not this?”
- A NAUMI SPIN
- GETTING IT RIGHT
- FROM CONCEPT TO EXECUTION
- GIVING IT THE LOVE
Giving It The Love
Design has not only helped Surya and Gaurang to create a distinct personality for all their properties; it has also helped uncover their true potential. “You have to work with the given parameters. For example, here at Naumi Hotel Singapore, all the compressors were originally kept on the rooftop. We decided to relocate them and install a rooftop pool in their place,” Surya says. The resulting pool commands the best views of the city and offers the privacy that guests claim is preferable to all the others.
Surya clearly has developed an eye for “diamonds in the rough” when it comes to properties. The company’s latest acquisition in Auckland also posed a number of challenges. Of course you have to spend money, but beyond that you have to be prepared to give it time and put in the effort.
“I told Gaurang to give it the love, otherwise it wasn’t going to work. It needed a lot of energy for it to work. There’s no science to it,” he surmises before adding, “Gaurang is now able to get it.”
The new property is nearing completion. The plan is to convert an existing property into a swanky hotel that sits on a two-acre plot of land. It will have fantastic rooms and a beautiful garden. The existing structures are spread out across the property in the midst of gardens. Guests will come through a lobby with ten-meter-high ceilings and a beautiful fireplace.
The new property required all of seven months to work, and Surya was involved in the process every day for six of those seven months. “I spent time with designers and consultants and the authorities.”
Naumi is a hotel in a gateway city, explain Surya. “The US is far for us. I would like to have something in Vietnam and Indonesia, but I don’t see it coming soon. Some locations call out to me. Some people run away from a property because of the amount of work involved, but we don’t run away from work. If you put in the effort, the results will come in.” And in all the properties they have acquired, they have put in the work.
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