TRANQUIL ESCAPE
Iconic London hotel The Berkeley takes its penthouse suites up a notch with a sumptuous design update by André Fu of AFSO
Located between the upmarket districts of Knightsbridge and Belgravia, The Berkeley has long been the hotel of choice by the wellheeled the world over. No surprise—it has been honing its reputation for excellence for over a century. From being one of the first to introduce air conditioning in the 1920s to establishing a deep connection with esteemed creatives, The Berkeley is not one to rest on its laurels. Following a redesign of the hotel’s revered public spaces, including the legendary David Collins-designed Blue Bar, attention was turned to the penthouse suites. After a successful collaboration with André Fu of AFSO on the serene Opus Suite in 2012, they commissioned him to reimagine two of their most prized spaces. Here, we speak to the interior architect on how he created a modern language of luxury and a home away from home for the ultra-wealthy. How do you choose a project to work on? What excites me most in a project is the team that I get to collaborate with. I am also drawn to the context of a project—its neighbourhood, its cultural backdrop and target market. Be it an aspirational spa in poetic Provence or an urban retreat in the heart of Hong Kong, I am particularly interested in the ethos of creating something that is unique; it is a proposition that I feel challenged with.
Walk us through your thought process in conceiving the spaces at The Berkeley: The essence of comfort is key to many of my works and the penthouse suites at The Berkeley are no exception. It is the curation of experiences within the spaces that evokes the sense of escape in the two super suites. The suites revolve around very different sensibilities—the Crescent Pavilion Penthouse focuses on the sense of intimacy, whilst the Grand Pavilion Penthouse, with an entire glasshouse dedicated to the art of entertainment, is conceived as a singular space. Designed to reflect the look and feel of a contemporary English country house, the Crescent Pavilion suggests the experience of a private residence surrounded by a lush English garden. With the focus on generous comfort, the suite is created as an ideal location for entertaining with two separate terraces. Meanwhile, the Grand Pavilion Penthouse is a spacious two-bedroom sanctuary that revolves around an outdoor fire pit.
Which design element do you feel the most proud of in this collaboration? The outdoor terrace of the Grand Pavilion Penthouse, where guests could enter from the dining salon, which can host up to eight guests. An open-fire pit serves as the focal point of the experience, contrasted with a series of rustic stone plinths that sets the base for an extensive lounge. Even in the middle of London, the landscape is distinctly rustic and sculptural, and it evokes a sense of distinct calm.