Name: Brainstorm Design 2023: A Conversation With Tina Norden
Uploaded: 2023-12-07
Duration: 15 min 48 s
Description: In conversation with: Tony Chambers, Studio TC & Friends

In conversation with: Tony Chambers, Studio TC & Friends

Brainstorm Design 2023: A Conversation With Tina Norden

Conferences

Thank you, Nick. As always, good afternoon again, ladies and gentlemen, great pleasure to have Tina Norden with us here to show us some of her extraordinary work she does across the globe. Before we dig a little deeper into the work you and con and partners have been doing. I would like you to share a little bit to the audience about the impact, the influence and the legacy of your founder, Sir Terence Conran. So um lovely to be here. Great to not quite see you all because it's very bright up here. Um So, uh we've been around for about 40 fiveish years um founded by Sir Terence Conan, who most of you probably don't know, but he was very, very famous in the UK in his lifetime. And weirdly in Japan, I don't know how that happened. But anyway, um and you know, he came to Eminence post war when Britain was a very drab and gray place. Um And he really set out to bring some Gerard de V and I mean that literally because he loved France um and bring some European lifestyle or ST lifestyle of life as he like to call it he doesn't like the word lifestyle to the UK. So he started off as a designer, not an architect, not an interior designer, as a designer and textile, textile designer, in fact, um but was also a restaurateur and very much also a businessman. Um And I think that's, that's, you know, something that wasn't necessarily normal at the time, but he really wanted to bring um you know, the, the beautiful things in life to everybody. He actually founded Habitat. Um Tom was talking earlier about being the creative director at a later stage, but Terrence founded Habitat and it was really about bringing good design to everybody. Um He believed very strongly and we still do today that good design improves the quality of people's lives and no matter IA I or hand drawing or whatever, that is still absolutely a fact. And we, we very much believe into that in that. But also he believed in design, not having boundaries. You know, he was a fabric designer designed furniture, teamed up with a master planner in his first company and, and, and really didn't believe that there was, there was, there was any limit to the design disciplines that they should cross over, they should work together that one merges into the other. And I think that's still something that we very strongly believe in the, it's still within your, that, that message is still there and con and partners and yeah, as you touched on, he was very much a businessman. He's was his, his passion. He changed the, the whole language and the look of, of, of Britain. But in the eighties, it was growth, growth, growth with his restaurants, but also um acquiring companies, the Conran shops, he was the pioneer that showed that design as well as changing lifestyle actually was a big business. And I think we, we in the UK O owe a great debt to debt and he left great design as well and the company that you are now principal and partner. So I see that's your offices. He's still looming, looming has a very typical gesture telling us off. And he like to do that kind of thing. He was, he was a very tough boss, but in, in many ways, that's what challenges you. And I think what he also taught us um is that design is for the people that inhabit it. Um And that's not just the guests in the case of a hotel um or a restaurant, but it's also the people that work there. And I think, you know, designing for people and designing spaces that people can enjoy no matter what they might be doing in there, whether it's work or play is, is really important. And we need to think about that because people don't enjoy our spaces. A they won't enjoy it, but also they will change it, you know, so you so often go to restaurants year after opening they've got weird waiter stations everywhere, whatever this is because it didn't work. So, you know, I think that's a very important thing for us to consider. And hospitality is one of your specialities within, within the group. We'll talk a little bit later about how hospitality has changed. Now, the workplace has changed. But you again, what drew you to become a specialist within interior design and join common because your family were on the landscape. Yeah, my father was a landscape architect. Um And um I, so I was very much immersed in, in design and the design process from when I was very little, but I have no green thumbs whatsoever. I only own cacti at home. So I think it was better for me to go into the built environment. And I very much wanted to become an architect and I studied architecture um at Westminster, very kind of straightforward architecture and then started at con um for my year out and that really opened my eyes to the fact that there wasn't just architecture, architects kind of believe there's only architecture, right? So, but it opened my eyes to the fact that actually there was other elements to the apologies to the architects in the room. But I'm saying that was the greatest love and respect. But you know, it is there is some truth in that, but you know, it opened my eyes to the fact. So there was lots of other design disciplines and I actually ended up going to the RC A and studying architecture and interiors which back in the days of Nigel Coats was one course which sadly, it is no longer, I wish it was because I think it should be because when the two come together seamlessly, it's you get the best results. So shall we take a look at some of your stunning work? Um Talk us through. This is the, so this one is, is Taj the trees in Mumbai. Um And some of you may well be familiar with the Taj Bank, which is IHCL um hotels. Um typically um palace hotels, grand, beautiful, you know, very elaborate um designs. This is very, very different and that really was the result of a very strong collaboration and a very very clear brief from our client, the owner, um God Rich properties, very young um uh uh chairman now who really drives kind of an agenda for change. And I think this is a great example. There was a lot of discussion today about the importance of briefs, the importance of collaboration, the importance of working together as designers. And I think this is a really great example of an amazing result. It literally opened a couple of months ago um of, you know, not just um an amazing result but also something that maybe drives Taj as a brand into a slightly different direction, a different realm, challenged them as a as an operator, you know, and, and you know, was AAA fantastic example of, of people really working closely together to achieve an amazing thing. You know, workmanship can sometimes be a challenge in, in India. But the quality of work when she here was significantly better than in the UK. There's a, there's a revelation that's good to hear for India, not for the UK. Move on. Next one I think is a number of pieces for the Park Hyatt brand. Let me just see if I can get to work. Oh, yes, that's right. So yeah, we've been working with Park Hyatt for um for many years now and we, we are on the third Park Hyatt now. So it's the same brand, the same DNA um different owners, completely different locations. And I think what, you know what this is really showing is that with the same initial building blocks um to try and create something that is specific for the location specific for the, this is Auckland. So this is on the Harbor front in Oak in Auckland, New Zealand is a very democratic place. So it's designed with a kind of much more down to earth, kind of very approachable vibe. Um Then we've got Pakeha Jakarta, which we started virtually at the same time, opened a little bit later COVID et cetera, which is a lot more layered. Um a lot more ground, you know, has, has a bit more glamour to it, I guess because that again, is reflecting um what our client wanted, but also what that market is demanding. So it's trying to spin the story and trying to design something that is specific. Um And I think, you know, on our subject of A I et cetera, I think that the the the human factor of curation and of developing the brief and of kind of, I guess editing um and curating, I think that's still very, very important because that kind of briefing at the beginning of the project is absolutely key to, to getting, you know, the end result, right? And with a brand like this, which has this strong DNA but needs human touch in terms of interpreting the locale and that it's key and everyone is meant to be different. So that's, that's the whole kind of, you know, that's the whole story behind the and touching on A I um is a A I and other digital technology. Is it changing the way you think the way design is not in the hospitality industry? Because when I think of the hospitality industry, it's the one that really does rely heavily on empathetic design. Um It's an interesting, I mean, we, we heard this morning, you know, even the amazing stuff that we saw coming out of the, the sketches, he's been working on it for four months, I think he was saying. So it is really, really recent and I think, you know, like all other designers, we're probably grappling with how do we best use it? We started dabbling it and at the moment, kind of using it more to kind of update things, get rid of stuff in visuals that we don't really want and we don't really want to get a visual. And so we're probably in the kind of early stages of it. Um But very curious as to how we can harness it more particularly for me for the later processes. Um You know, I I can completely see the the the kind of the the the the benefit in creating these initial visuals, but I just feel that there needs to be a layer of that kind of curation and that kind of, you know, meaning in it, particularly in hospitality. Um So maybe that comes in at a slightly later stage when brief has been defined very clearly. Um But also, of course, then once you have defined the design, actually the processes of of getting that drawn up, you know, technically resolved and all of that kind of stuff, which takes a very, very long time, huge amounts of manpower, you know, and a lot of human error can happen. So if we can harness it for that, that would be like I would be very happy. Yes. And I think that's been a key thing that's been picked up today that if you can harness that power, get it to do all the things that maybe frees up the designer for thinking, the thinking time, the ideas and the true creativity. It is going to be the real, the tool that changes everything for the better. Um back to your projects. We're still in the park, High Peninsula Peninsula. So you're probably familiar with the Peninsula brand. Um You know, obviously a brand name, particularly in Hong Kong. Um So we were asked to um to create a new brand DNA for the Peninsula boutique, very small piece of the puzzle. Um So we opened Hong Kong um during, during COVID and London literally just opened with the new hotel. So it's a very grand dame of, you know, design really um very meticulous, very detailed focused and we were kind of tasked to create a new identity for the Peninsula boutique and cafe, which is very immersive, very kind of this is all Peninsula Green. But the exciting thing for us on this was it wasn't just designing one shop, but it was actually designing the whole brand DNA um including a very detailed um brand guide that designed all of the fittings, you know, for different sizes, high street concessions, et cetera. So as we were saying earlier, you could put that very happily in to an A I tool and now have that applied to different sites and different configurations because a lot of the DNA is already there. So then it's kind of about applying it in the easiest, cheapest and most kind of efficient way Yes. And then in a way the data one puts into an A I to then guide it, the prompts to guide it to a particular set of results is basically a brand book, isn't it exactly? It needs to be this, this, this, this um that's interesting. So this is brand building through interior design. So creating a look, a visual mood sense to the strength. Yeah, terrific. Um One other thing which obviously has affected your industry enormously, all of us um post pandemic, how the pandemic has transformed the function of the office and the hotel. And I believe you've been doing work where you've used your conflating those two functions more and more very much. So, I mean, this goes back to Terrence's life style of life. Um So he hated the phrase lifestyle, he hated the life. And so I don't think it's as strongly felt in Asia as it is in Europe, but we're really struggling with getting people back into offices and into studios. Um You know, it's become very normalized for people to work from home. People seem to enjoy it. I hate it, but, you know, people seem to enjoy it. So it's a real challenge to actually still offer space um to get people to come back, you know, even if it's just three or four days a week. Um So we've had a lot of clients coming to us basically wanting to create something different in their office spaces often it's maybe the lobbies, the shared areas to basically get tenants back in. Fundamentally, that's what it's about. So this is one Canada Square, very, very kind of um uh Grand Souza Pelli designed building 1970 Canary Wharf, Canary Wharf. That's right. Um And they asked us to, to effectively take on the lobby space, that incredible marvel thing, it was all there to create something that has a kind of human scale, has a kind of hospitality element to it, including new reception desks that wanted to be very kind of approachable um unique forward thinking, contemporary, all of those kind of things, but also importantly, bringing in hospitality. So we created these very open brasserie and cafe spaces that basically allow people to come in, have a coffee, you know, bring their laptop work there. And actually a lot of the people that work up in the offices are now coming down here to, you know, to have meetings to work, et cetera and actually using those spaces accordingly. So it's making the workplace more of a hospitable place to attend. Somebody said the phrase a couple of weeks ago to me about um as a manager or the owner of a business, getting your people into work, you have to earn their commute. So that was a great phrase, you know, why should I commute? Why should you as a as the, as the boss, the company needs to earn their use? And this is this is very much about that, you know, and, and these are not design companies, I think in design even stronger argument for people to work together. These are, you know, all sorts of different types of corporate offices. This is actually in Mayfair. So it was a similar kind of phrase, very different look and feel because obviously area very nice office and in fact, the client's um feedback this great port in the States um was that, that, that people are coming in to actually work downstairs, they don't go up into their offices, they actually work down here, which is great and obviously a great accolade for us. But again, with this, just to show that, you know, the previous on this one. And um and, and this space here also, which is actually just across the water in Hong Kong at the East Hotel um for swa hotels where we turned their all day dining space, merged it with Domain, which is a co-working concept to allow basically that space to function all the way from early in the morning until late at night, all the way through for meetings, catch up, eat dining, you know, we just did an interview there yesterday. So, you know, all sorts of different things and this is all of kind of merging the hospitality and the work real together and allowing people to work in the flexible way that they now like to work and making people kind of excited about, you know, keep your, keep your workers there 24 hours, why not? I mean, that would be the sinister way of doing that. But, you know, it's an added bonus. Just want to close on. Very excitingly and fascinating. Just recently at the end of last year, conn and Partners was bought by its five principles, including yourself. Very exciting time for you all but challenging. I'm sure how do you see the future direction of con? It's probably the most difficult time to, to buy any design business as many of you will know. But um you know, we have to be forward thinking. That's what design is all about, you know, um good design improves the quality of people's lives in short. You know, that's what we want to do. But, you know, we're very collaborative practice, we're very kind of top down, you know, you know, everybody working together, very democratic and, you know, really, it is about creating an environment where people can be creative um and where we can do the best work we can possibly do. That's a lovely business plan. Great for your work. I'm sure Terence is looking down at you with his characteristic acoustic finger and wishing you all the best as we do. Tina Norden. Thank you very much for sharing your vision. Thank you. Thank you for having me.