Mr. Bedner

Architecture & Design

The Five Best Practices in Hotel Foyer Design

By Michael Bedner, Chairman & CEO, Hirsch Bedner Associates

If the lobby is the heart and the guestrooms the soul, the foyer serves as the connective tissue of a hotel or resort. A series of pathways and vistas that break the guests' visual experience in a way that doesn't give everything away all at once while, a foyer, at the same time, prepares and connects them to what comes next.

While it's a modification in thought and theory, we believe a foyer is a focal point in hotel design and impacts the entire hospitality experience. Far from their ancillary role and no longer simply a physical passageway, a foyer, at its best, becomes a transitional and emotional space between the public and private areas that sets the tone and guest expectations as they move from one experience or environment of the hotel to another.

From a design standpoint, foyers offer challenging and artistic opportunities to create dramatic and bold spaces that direct and call attention to what is happening behind or beyond them. Just by its presence, a foyer can begin the transformation of turning an urban hotel into a private, secluded property and help guests turn their back on the hustle and bustle of the city and move into a tranquil space. An entry foyer sets the theme for everything else that a designer is doing, and may herald a major atrium, a restaurant or a ballroom.

John Portman, one of the best hotel architects in the world made brilliant use of transitional spaces to add contrast and texture or scale. While smaller foyers, such as an elevator foyer or one separating the sleeping area from the bathroom might not have equal impact, they do heighten the overall ambiance of the hotel and make it easier for the hotel staff to provide the optimum hospitality experience.

The most challenging foyer designs are those where we're forced into an artificial solution by virtue of existing architectural restrictions or client preferences rather than following only the dictates of our creative process. Either way, our design philosophy applies. When we work on a new project we approach the design as if it's the first time we've worked on a hotel. We utilize a timeless, well-planned design approach geared to stimulate the guest's sense and emotions and evoke a vivid sense of place.

Here are five elements that must be taken into consideration when designing foyers for their maximize impact and efficiency.

1. Adherence to an overall, concise plan

The foyer is not an afterthought. It's an integral part of design and thorough planning is necessary to achieve a foyer with visual and emotional impact that's also practical in facilitating the guests' movement through the hotel. Sometimes that's as simple as a screened entry into a restaurant or a segregated elevator foyer leading to the residential section of the hotel, other times an elaborate entry way is needed to announce a large lobby or contrast with a multi-storied atrium.

Sometimes the architecture dictates these decisions because the design must fit and enhance the space and we do work with hotel owner/operators to redefine, reposition, or modify their look. The choice for whether it's a luxurious, stylized look versus a more traditional or contemporary design is all part of the planning process. A historic building, for example, is better suited to opulence while simplicity can be sumptuous in a smaller boutique hotel. The design must never veer toward what's hip or trendy and instead achieve a long lasting, elegance.

A foyer transitions guests from the integral workings of a hotel into the function rooms or a restaurant. A guest room door drop provides the gust with a hint of the guest room experience and in European hotels there's often a foyer that acts as a buffer between the sleeping chamber and the bathroom/bathing space.

In public areas, staircases serve as wonderful transitional spaces, allowing guests to appreciate them from the bottom looking up and then as they descend into major function areas, like ballrooms. A great place to see and be seen, we often add a number of landings or appealing gathering spaces in our staircases leading to ballrooms, like the one in the Fullerton Hotel Singapore, situated in the heart of Raffles Place, which drops down into a subterranean ballroom space.

Where foyers will be placed, how they will function are all part of the design planning process, which is where we generate some of our most innovative ideas. Far from impeding the creative process, developing the plan is the source of great inspiration and the first step to achieving our goals.

2. Creating a strong sense of place

It's important to know where you are throughout the hospitality experience and our goal is to enhance a sense of place through every design element at our disposal. The hotel and hotel foyers must denote where one is in the world and provide the flavor and culture of the city or country. Local artwork, indigenous materials and even nature all inform the design aesthetic.

A spectacular natural setting, view or proximity to cultural landmarks can create such a strong sense of place that that the hotel design must be complimentary, casual and understated yet show it off. That's definitely the case in the beachfront Shima Kanko Hotel on the island of Kashinkojma, near the Ago Bay, where an intricate entryway to the hotel is followed by a series of four events prior to the guests arrival in their rooms. After the front door is opened to the hotel, guests transition through a foyer into an airlock where they can only see and access reception and the lobby lounge before moving past a fireplace into an area overlooking a reflecting pool and the Mikimoto pearl beds in the distance. It's only in their guestroom where they see the complete, spectacular view of the Ago Bay and the pearl beds for the first time.

Many hotels demand a signature design for all of their properties, but a hotel in Katmandu shouldn't feel like it could be in Chicago. We've worked with the Ritz-Carlton owners to individualize each of their hotels but retain the high standards of a luxury property. Our design of The Raffles Hotel Singapore was inspired by the hundred year old architecture and the distinct colonial feeling, while the Raffles Macao (scheduled to open in 2010) is more contemporary. We are bringing a similar thread, a round window motif, pulled throughout the properties, including our renovation of the Raffles L'Ermitage in Beverly Hills.

3. Lighting

Rather than an overall illumination of a space, lighting is a design element used to enhance the look, mood and function of every interior or exterior area of the hotel, including the foyer. Sometimes the lighting may be subtle for an entry way to a spa or natural light for the entry to a sky lit atrium. Lighting installation or track lighting may serve as a way to direct guests to a ballroom or meeting space.

4. Achieving the most effective scale to the space

Whether simple or elaborate, the foyer is like the landings in a staircase in that it can be a place to stop, catch your breath and take in your surroundings. A boutique hotel needs a different type of scale than a major convention hotel. Sometimes our design goals are to create a "wow" factor, where a diminished foyer would enhance and contrast with a vast, multi-story, sun filled atrium. In the Fullerton Hotel Singapore, we designed a tight and low-ceiling entry way to elicit that "oh shit" feeling when guests enter a huge, spectacular sky-lit atrium. Many times, though hotel areas that are meant to impress can overwhelm, and it's important to humanize spaces, to bring them down to a level where people can appreciate, understand and enjoy them. Foyers can help do this for the guest by essentially providing them with a place to acclimate and catch-up before taking in the larger spaces.

5. Emotional Experience

All of the elements of planning, lighting, sense of place and scale combine to create an overall emotional experience for the guest. Our goal is for guests to be taken in by a space. In order to do this, a textural feel is created through wall fabrics, flooring and artwork, all of which are tantamount to creating a complete sensual experience. Like the chocolates left on the pillows for turn down, the foyer can be simply add a bit of comfort or pleasure. A boutique hotel in an urban environment requires a foyer that encourages leaving the busy outside world for the tranquil oasis of the hotel and immediately begins to set that mood and mind space. In an entry foyer to a restaurant in the Fullerton Hotel Singapore, guests move from an area in black to a contrasting white stone space that creates a dramatic environment while also symbolizing the Ying Yang spirituality of the culture.

In creating the emotional response, it's all about drawing out the experience, bit by bit stimulating the guests' curiosity and anticipation. Even before a guest encounters the elaborate series of entry points in the Shima Kanko Hotel Kashikojma, their sensory experience begins as they arrive on the pebble driveway and hear the sound of pebbles under their tires and then underfoot as they enter the hotel. In those few moments, we've set the stage for their visit to this casual, boutiques beach hotel and whether their stay is business or pleasure we encourage them to let go and enjoy the atmosphere.

Above all, we're creating fun during the guest stay and memories that stay with them long after they've left the hotel or resort. The foyer, while perhaps a small detail plays a part in creating those unforgettable images.

As Chairman and CEO of Hirsch Bedner Associates, Michael Bedner leads the largest, hospitality design firm in the world. In 1964, Mr. Bedner and Howard Hirsch, revolutionized hospitality design by creating a new discipline. Mr. Bedner has expanded the discipline into an art form which continues to evolve. His design influence can be seen in hundreds of the finest hotels throughout the world. Mr. Bedner's 40 years of international hands-on experience have provided him with a singular understanding of the cultural, programmatic and financial aspects of a variety of projects. Mr. Bedner can be contacted at 310-829-9087 or MichaelB@HBAdesign.com Extended Bio...

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