FETTLE DESIGN STUDIO

Posted in People on 28 May, 2024

From London to Las Vegas, Fettle Design Studio has taken the global hospitality design scene by storm. In conversation with SPACE, co-founders Tom Parker and Andy Godwin discuss long distance relationships, finding the narrative and why repetition will never work.

With studios in London’s Shoreditch and LA, Fettle co-founders and partners in design, Andy Goodwin and Tom Parker met when working together at MBDS (Martin Brudnizki Design Studio). With a shared vision for their future and undeterred by an eight-hour time difference, in 2015 they decided the time was right to open their own studio. Nine years on and an award-winning portfolio later, they are serious players on the global design scene.

What was the shared ambition when launching the studio?
We had discussed launching the company for the best part of a decade before we were in a position to really pull the trigger on it. It just so happened that when the opportunity came around Tom was living in New York, and I was in London and as such the studio grew quite naturally in that manner. We still joke that we were unique in being a two-person multinational firm when we first started out.

What do you each bring to the drawing board?
Our relationship works dynamically as we have a very similar skill set but we have quite varied focuses and strengths and approaches about how these skills are applied to each project. We both like to develop a detailed design narrative for each project in the studio and often work on this together across projects both in the UK and internationally. Andy has a superb eye for detail and revels in working with our team and carrying the design narrative through into the nuts and bolts of every project. I am more driven by the inter team relationships and collaborations on projects, while still having the focus of how the design narrative evolves and develops through the various project phases.

What is the design process once you have secured a new project?
The starting point is always an in-depth dialogue with the client team to attain a detailed understanding of what they are trying to create. This is then followed by a deep dive into both the location of the project, the history of the brand or story of the client team and the development of a detailed and project specific design narrative. This acts as our guide through the concept and subsequent documentation phases. The design narrative holds a significant importance within our process and is something we find ourselves continually referring back to – both internally and with the client and wider project teams.

Although the Fettle aesthetic has recognisable design threads running through each project, they avoid looking repetitious. What’s the secret to keeping projects looking fresh and unexpected?
We find that what really separates our projects is the importance that the design narrative phase of the project holds within our studio process. It means that the reasons we are making design decisions on each project come from a different perspective each time and have a varied end goal aesthetically. We are fortunate to benefit from working on a wide range of projects with very varied brands and client teams in differing international locations. Currently in process for example, we have a flagship hotel in Paris, a mountain resort in Utah, a casino in Las Vegas and several standalone restaurants in central London. We could never design these projects in a similar way and have them succeed – we approach each one individually and generate very varied design solutions.

Above and below: the San Carlo Liverpool restaurant, reception at The Georgian hotel in Santa Monica, and the library at member’s club 1 Warwick

Fettle projects evoke a sense of history – is the design narrative always based in the building’s history or do you write your own?
As we have a number of projects in our portfolio which are renovations of existing historic buildings (The Georgian Hotel, 1 Warwick for example) clients often come to us knowing that we are successful with this type of work. These buildings give you an immediate sense of history and we always try to tell part of that story within the design narrative and subsequently the completed spaces. That said, we also work on numerous new build projects where we also try and imbue a sense of time and place within our designs. This would often be driven by the client’s concept, the F&B offering, or by the history of the locale of the site. Within projects where the architectural detailing is cleaner and more modern, such as Schwan Locke in Munich, the colour palettes and FFE schemes will often be historically driven on a conceptual level.

We could never design these projects in a similar way and have them succeed – we approach each one individually and generate very varied design solutions.

The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica has recently reopened its doors to much critical acclaim. What was it like to work on such an iconic hotel?
Working on projects such as The Georgian is a real treat for us as a studio, not only because of the renowned nature of the project, but largely because of the rich history that such a building can give you to work with. The building is a gem of classic American West Coast Art Deco. The stories from when it originally opened in 1933 – such as being owned by Santa Monica’s first female developer and frequented by Hollywood stars on their way to the offshore gambling ships – gave us a highly compelling and visceral starting point. The key with these kinds of projects is to understand that we are not recreating the hotel as it would have been in its heyday – but instead to reference the feel and aesthetic of that, while placing it in a very modern travel hotspot with an ownership team operating the hotel in a unique way.

At Cichetti Knightsbridge, guests enter the space beside the main bar, a monolithic structure of carved and shaped Cippollino marble, sourced directly from an Italian quarry

I understand you are currently completing Bolivar Restaurant at Annabel’s.  How did it feel to work on a project that Martin Brudnizki was so widely celebrated for and what was the design brief?
We have always been huge admirers of Annabel’s and the work that Martin completed within the space. It has been a great privilege to work within such an incredible building. Our brief for Bolivar was very different to the wider design for the club and was very much led by the client team who were incredibly close to the whole process. The client wanted to create a total transportation as you walk through the portal entrance that leads guests from the luxury surroundings of Annabel’s into an authentic 1800’s Mexican cantina.

The imminent opening of Rio Hotel & Casino marks your first project in Las Vegas. Aesthetically it appears to be a departure from the more layered looks we associate with Fettle. Could you tell us a little more about the finished design?
The Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was iconic when it opened in the early 1990’s and in that way the task at hand is not dissimilar to a project such as The Georgian or the renovation of Bolivar at Annabel’s. In this case, what sets The Rio apart from most of our projects is the sheer scale of what we are working with. Between the 700 square metre food hall, 15,000 square metres of casino and the 6,500 square metre pool deck, what we are designing there is the same size as most of our other projects combined. These spaces, with the redesign of the entry precession, porte cochere and reception and finally the renovation of the signature lobby bar mean that it is almost like completing six or seven projects in one location.

We approached the project by developing one umbrella narrative and subsequent sub-narratives for each space. The lobby bar for example is warm, layered and cosy – but with a glitzier set of finishes and flourishes forming the heart of the casino spaces. The design for the food hall drew more from the grit and texture of Rio de Janeiro. The lush, planted pool deck was further inspired by the iconic Brazilian landscape designers and architects from the 1940’s and 50’s. This means that although our design approach and process has been the same as it would on a smaller project, the visual result is more varied and in places more daring and unusual – which is suitable for the Vegas market.

Looking back over the last nine years, what do you consider to be the stand-out projects in your portfolio and why?
Within each phase of what we have accomplished as a studio, Andy and I have found various projects have proven to be key to the evolution of Fettle. The initial GBK renovations we completed led us to work on central London based restaurants such as Moncks, Tavolino and subsequently San Carlo and the Restaurant & Bar Design Award winning Cicchetti in Knightsbridge. Similarly, The Draycott and Hoxton Hotel projects led us to Olivetta, The Georgian Hotel and Sundance Mountain Resort. While we wouldn’t say any one project in our portfolio is more important than the other, we have certainly noticed that there are phases we have been through as a studio which have been particularly significant to our continued evolution.