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Project Name: Nobu Hotel London Portman Square

Location: London

Date Completed: December 2020

Architect: Make Architects

Interior designer: David Collins Studio Ltd

Hotel Group/ Developer: Nobu Hospitality

David Collins Studio was tasked with designing the ground floor communal areas, restaurant and bar at Nobu Hotel London Portman Square. It was a unique opportunity to create a new Nobu flagship property. The hotel marks a relocation of the original Nobu Berkeley Street restaurant, also designed by David Collins Studio. The Nobu team were keen that the new restaurant retained the vibe that David Collins Studio created for Berkeley Street.  The design concept focused on the guests’ journey through the hotel spaces. The former property had no active use at ground level or street presence, so a large part of the brief was to provide a new presence to the entrance.

A new double height Lobby provided the perfect opportunity for a memorable arrival experience. David Collins Studio commissioned British sculptor Ivan Black to create a 7-metre-tall kinetic sculpture, which is suspended in the centre of the room. Utilising the daylight that streams through the glass façade, the rotating aluminium fins cast shadow across the room. Clean lines and geometric shapes used in the Lobby’s interior architecture of columns and colonnades creates a calm environment for guests.

The location, beautifully positioned overlooking Portman Square, was a source of inspiration for the designer. They referenced the outside greenery a lot – with upholstery fabric colours and custom green circle veneer table tops in the Lobby Lounge. London Plane Trees in the outside seating area sit at eye level for restaurant guests on the First Floor, creating a canopy of greenery as you look out. The atmosphere shifts as you move through the Lounge into the Nobu Bar and Restaurant. Finishes become darker, richer and more intense. The bar is a more dramatic blue palette, with custom coloured raku tiles in a traditional Japanese indigo.

Lounge spaces either side of the main bar providing intimate seating are subtly lit with cone shaped table lamps. Largescale canvases by London-based artist Juliana Loveday hang at the arrival and back bar. Ascending the stairs to the first floor, guests are greeted by an expansive, open-plan and colourful restaurant space, with sushi counter and Private Dining Room.

David Collins Studio commissioned and collaborated with some amazing artists on this project. The favourite must be the huge Ivan Black sculpture, which was commissioned for the Lobby. The designers have always been huge fans of his work. It was a bit of a risk, but a huge space to fill and is so special because it is never static or predictable.