"Hotels aren’t places to live in the day-to-day, but spaces to experience. With that, there’s more room to play and create a story that’s really compelling and transports and connects guests to the place around them."
From Balinese jungle dwellings like Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape to the world’s coolest igloo hotels, we’re constantly hunting down trendy accommodations to enhance your travels. And who do we have to thank for all these slices of wonder but the hotel designers with the vision to bring their creativity to life. Based in London, Goddard Littlefair has been tasked with conceiving the interiors for luxe properties across the globe. We sat down with Co-founders and Directors Jo Littlefair and Martin Goddard to learn more about their process.
Jo: I have always been drawn to interiors and growing up, my mother and my grandmother always worked with fabrics and their hands, which inspired me to study textile design. I have also been drawn to travel and have huge wanderlust, so getting out and seeing the world, being inspired by different design cultures eventually led to me becoming an FF&E design specialist.
Martin: When I was growing up in East London, there wasn’t much design around me, but I found my own path through art, studying and completing an Art Foundation which led to a degree at Middlesex University.
I started my career working at Richmond International designing the Four Seasons Gresham Palace, later moving to GA Design working on projects like the conversion of a listed London building to the iconic Corinthia Hotel. I got hands-on experience transforming heritage properties, searching their DNA to create lasting designs that feel authentic and memorable for guests, while working seamlessly on an operational level for the client.
Martin: With the design, you can go further with the narrative. Hotels aren’t places to live in the day-to-day, but spaces to experience. With that, there’s more room to play and create a story that’s really compelling and transports and connects guests to the place around them.
Operationally, there are technical considerations that are essential to the guests’ experience of the space. The interchange between the back and front of house needs to be seamless and efficient. Guests don’t want to see the bar being topped up while they’re trying to relax, or luggage being dragged down corridors – it all needs to be discreet.
Martin: The first step is always to harvest all the information you have available. You have to delve deep into what already exists – whether the building is new or if it’s a renovation project, the process is the same.
It is important to understand the architecture, the craft, context of the location, the land, its people and their customs and this needs to be combined with an understanding of what the guest experience needs to be. As a studio, we engage our design team and hear their initial thoughts and instincts, always trying to follow the right thread. We weave together the right narrative and build a unique design story for each project.
Jo: One of our most recent projects, The Four Seasons Istanbul at Sultanahmet was such a rewarding and challenging design experience for us. It was our first time working in the region, meeting local craftspeople and suppliers for the first time.
We had to adapt and be fluid. We scoured the bazaars in Istanbul for original pieces and decorative objects that would fit beautifully with our scheme, designing in real time as we searched.
When we embarked on the project we realised that the site had been built upon since Roman times with the foundations of the property layered over and over. With such a rich and significant history, there was so much to lean into with our design narrative and an absolute honour to be a part of its next era. Guests can expect something truly special when they stay there.
Martin: We’ve seen huge cycles in the way resorts are created. Twenty, even thirty years ago, the resort was about magnitude, excess, and grandeur. Now those big operators are paring back to deliver more boutique style offerings that are authentic and rooted in the culture and context of the place where they are.
Sustainability is essential, we are aware, not just as designers, but as guests, about our footprint, creating things that are built to stand the test of time, both from a materiality and user perspective, but also in style. We design authentically, creating a narrative for a property that feels timeless.
Jo: Luxury to many people is time, and time spent well is a key ethos for us in the creation of each of our spaces. We aim to create environments that induce the occupants to either relax or excite, cocoon or inspire, and connect them to their location in a deeply authentic way.
In the past perhaps you may have associated luxury with the most expensive paint or stone or finishes, actually people appreciate a bit more honesty in the materiality, and things done simply and beautifully. For us, we have discovered a lot more about materials we use. Their origin, their natural properties, for example: what does the stone look like when you split it in two without polishing it? We’ve discovered different textures that really help layer an interior.
Martin: The way we travel has changed. The rise of the digital nomad and our increased flexibility in work-life balance post covid means that there is space on the market for new
types of hospitality offer.
Spatially, rooms have shed some of the traditional boundaries and spaces have opened up to become more flexible and adaptable to guests’ shifting needs. For example, guest room desk heights have changed to accommodate different technologies, and now nothing is hemmed in against walls with no aspect. Natural light sources, a view to work in front of, and the rise of “b-leisure”, have all shaped guest room design to be more flexible and creative.
Jo: Post-covid, we have emerged with a refreshed motivation to connect ourselves more deeply to nature and the world around us. This biophilic shift to rebalance ourselves has seen us create spaces that bring the outside, inside, and to dress the spaces around us with life and living things.
Jo: We have recently moved offices into a converted warehouse in the heart of the City of London. We’re almost finished putting the final touches to it, so from a personal perspective, we are delighted to be in the space and to be sharing it with our team.
We also have the Raffles London at the OWO spa opening later this year. The design intention was to create a seamless intervention in the heart of this historical building that felt as though it has always been there. The space is tranquil and restrained, which creates an intentional continuity of calm that gives this stately, and dignified space a contemporary yet timeless feel. It’s also incredibly sensorial, which is the most fundamental aspect of spa design. Guests need to feel cocooned and able to truly escape and let go.
Jo: Travel has been a lifelong passion. Martin and I are both inquisitive and enchanted by different parts of the world. Hotels are the window that frame a lot of our experiences of destinations.
For us, it’s extremely important to ensure that hotels enhance and elevate an experience by both meeting the needs of a weary traveller and allowing them an avenue into the heart of the place. We are lucky enough to work across several sectors of interior design. Hotel design gives an element of escapism and scale that is addictive.
Martin: Choosing one is so challenging – there have been so many. A riad in Marrakech, a palace in Udaipur, a Victorian townhouse in Cape Town….all have given greater context and connection with the places I have visited.
In terms of a hotel giving an unexpected uplift to an experience of a place, we stayed in a hotel that was knitted into the hills of a town called Modica in Sicily. Breakfast on the shaded terraced garden gave us such a terrific view of the place that we decided to shelter there from the heat of the town. The hotel offered a perfect excuse for enforced rest and relaxation.
Hotels that instinctively encourage you to simply dwell in them while still feeling
like you’re not missing the spirit of the place by doing so, are a rare breed of establishment and have the DNA that we seek to replicate in our projects.
Martin: As restaurant designers, we have to say dining! Excellent restaurant design should sit perfectly in tandem with the cuisine and the overall experience of the destination. Our specialist team of restaurant design experts, Epicurean, are passionate about food and beverage, and they pour that into their work.
Jo: A spa with a pool.
Jo: We’re so busy we don’t often get time to celebrate as much as we would like to! The studio turning ten last year was an incredible milestone, and a wonderful opportunity for us to raise a glass to reflect on our successes. It felt amazing to share that moment with our talented team, and with the clients who have trusted us to deliver on our vision.
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