Bermonds Locke Hotel / Holloway Li

Curated by Paula Pintos

Architects: Holloway Li
Area: 7000 m²
Year: 2020
Photographs:Edmund Dabney, Nick Worley
Manufacturers: Ascot Signs, DGS Fabrications, Heathfield, Holliday Concrete Testing Limited, IGD – Indoor Garden Design, Polkima Moulded Composites
Contractor: Beck Interiors
MEP Engineer: Hydrock
Structural Engineer: Hydrock

Text description provided by the architects. Brought to life with repurposed materials, the studio’s innovative design will transform the 143-room hotel into a surreal, iridescent haven, inspired by California’s Joshua Tree and Mojave desert. The desert-inspired aesthetic begins with a moonlit reception bathed in a glittering mirage created by overhead mirrors, inspired by The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson. In the tranquil pursuit of both business and pleasure, visitors can meander through open co-working spaces basking in soft light - with swing chairs, fixed concrete banquette seating, and suspended planters punctuating the space between bar and restaurant.

Marking a new design direction for Locke, Holloway Li has curated a living experience carved out of recycled construction site materials that will adorn the studio rooms, bar, and restaurant, co-working spaces, gym, and yoga room. The studio harnessed the potential of upcycling to curate bespoke furniture and interiors throughout the space. Concrete testing cubes destined for landfill find new purpose at Bermonds Locke, serving as plinths for a six-metre long terrazzo table in the ground floor workspace, and shaped into a bar frontage that will serve Bermondsey’s Beer Mile’s finest beer atop its surface.

Repurposed steel rebar and clay bricks form decorative ironwork and joinery elements throughout the space. Bringing the changing gradient of the desert sunset to South London, Locke's signature functional living rooms on the upper floors will be dipped in blue, beige, and grey hues and saturated vibrant reds on the lower floors. The studio has designed bespoke modular sofas handmade using sand mixed with resin lay-up to recreate the desert’s tonality. Rough-sawn timber floors welcome a patina to be marked with steps trodden.

Designed to be lived in, each individual studio is equipped with a fully functional kitchen and laundry facilities, giving guests the flexibility to live in each room undisturbed for anything from one night to three months. Paying homage to nature’s wonder in both aesthetic and eco-responsibility, bespoke bed frames are woven from blackened rebar accented with linen canopies infuse old notions of the concrete jungle with a new sense of sanctuary. Capturing the psychedelic experience of Joshua Tree underpins the design narrative. An industrial process of zinc-passivation creates an iridescent rainbow finish that will be found on bar tops, wall paneling, and echoed by fluted polarising glass sliding partitions in the rooms. This metal-dipping process forms a patina over the metal, embedding the desert sky into the hotel’s DNA.