What Keeps Hospitality Spaces Hot? Ask DesignAgency Founders

Since DesignAgency was established 25 years ago, hospitality has always been at the heart of the Toronto-based firm’s principles, which was molded by its trio of founders—Allen Chan, Matt Davis, and Anwar Mekhayech. At the time, these friends and recent graduates were still budding: the first two had graduated in landscape design from the University of Toronto and the third in engineering from the University of Western Ontario. Mekhayech had proposed a project nearly all the three of them had worked on: a competition to design and manage a student bistro they had named sPaHa at the newly-built U of T Grad House, Morphosis Architects’ ambitious project. What Keeps Hospitality Spaces Hot?

This early success had given birth to the young firm and its inspiring multidisciplinary practice encompassing interior design, architectural conceptualization, strategic branding, and visual communications. It had also come at the perfect time, as the hype around boutique-hotels and the Toronto boutique-design world was reaching its peak. The firm had then added two consequent international names to Toronto’s list of boldface brands—Momofuku Restaurant and the Soho House members’ club—all while creating an international reputation for themselves when they became creative directors for Generator Hostels, the European chain that was key in opening a market segment from both a design and a travel point of view.

This long-term relationship led DA to open offices in Barcelona, Spain, Los Angeles, and Washington. With a wide array of services that range from involving high-profile names like that of the Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis to NeueHouse and Motto by Hilton, it’s easy to realize how much of an important role hospitality has come to play in the founders’ business.

INTERIOR DESIGN: DesignAgency started 25 years ago with the sPaHa student bistro. How did the hospitality practice evolve from there?

Matt Davis narrated that the journey for them to arrive at the hotels had been a long and laborious one, with their progression starting off at smaller restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and entertainment venues that eventually led to multiunit residential buildings with its own amenity spaces. Ten years later, they began getting their first hotel commissions- with lobbies first, and later, the guest rooms. Allen Chan went on to provide additional information, explaining that when they had just started out, hospitality design wasn’t such a focus on hotels- something that had drastically changed as boutique hotels became mainstream and lifestyle magazines started featuring them.

ID: Is that when you began working with Generator, the European hostel brand?

After being appointed as creative directors of Generator across nine countries in Europe, we had an opportunity to completely rethink hospitality in the current market. From the perspective of millennials, we had to explore how people traverse, what makes for a great experience, and how can the lobby and food-and-beverage areas be better utilized for a fulfilling experience. Additionally, guest rooms can be designed to be comfortable crash pads, rather than where you stay for a prolonged time as the focus can be shifted outwards to the lobby and other communal spaces. This gave the hotel industry a chance to experience what could be achieved with a limited budget when design was taken into consideration.