The Art of Motion
WINNING AWARDS IS ALWAYS WONDERFUL, INSPIRING AND REINFORCES THE BELIEF THAT OUR ORIGINAL DESIGN METHODOLOGY EVOLVED THROUGHOUT THE YEARS IS A SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME OF A PROMISING AND WORTHWHILE JOURNEY
Coming off his fourth consecutive win for “World’s Best Interior Design” at the prestigious International Property Awards, Alexander Wong continues to redefine the future of experiential architecture with innovation and elegance.
His latest triumph, Spiral Sky & Ocean Aria at the luxurious Regala Skycity Hotel, is a visually stunning, immersive space that beautifully blurs the line between art and architecture. We interviewed with the visionary designer to discuss his creative journey, the challenges behind the ground breaking project, and the collaborative spirit that made it all possible.
Congratulations on your fourth consecutive “World’s Best Interior Design” award! What does this continued success mean for you and your team, and how does it influence your vision for future projects?
First and foremost, it is a huge honour to be awarded this most coveted award for the fourth time since 2017. Looking back, our team, including everyone in our entire company, is grateful to the judges of IPA, our clients, our design team, builders, collaborating consultants, suppliers, like Arnhold & Co., Ltd., photographers and so many experts in their respective fields. Getting an award this big, or any awards big or small for that matter, is always a collaborative effort. We just feel so fortunate to be able to showcase all this hard work on the global platform of IPA, sharing the limelight with everyone else. Winning awards is always wonderful, inspiring and reinforces the belief that our original design methodology evolved throughout the years is a successful outcome of a promising and worthwhile journey. These accolades will spur us to keep learning, searching for more inspirational ideas and create designs that will touch the heart and soul of everyone.
Spiral Sky & Ocean Aria is a bold departure from traditional banquet hall designs. Could you walk us through the inspiration behind the project’s concept and how it reflects your signature approach to experiential design?
I remember quite vividly our entire design process, no matter how arduous it seemed at the time, from start to finish. We had many design options with Spiral Sky standing out to be the strongest one and our clients also agreed. The original design intent was to construct an awe-inspiring, fun and dynamic space. However, the main challenge to design any Hotel Banquet Hall is this intrinsic requirement to provide sliding panels in sub-dividing a big space into smaller ones, thus allowing several different occasions to occur simultaneously as well as adjacently to one another, but with a big price to pay. As this invariably ends up carving up the big space in an orthogonal manner which results in drastically reducing the dynamic qualities of the space itself. The Spiral Sky approach totally breaks this tradition with an amazingly original design for the ceiling which is anti-orthogonal and completely dynamic, almost like an Argentine Tango in motion. So the end results very much reflect the original design intent to a T.
Seeing spiralling white frames on the ceiling creates an illusion of movement; a striking, kinetic effect rarely seen in hospitality interiors. What inspired this specific design language, and what experience were you hoping to evoke for guests?
If our mission as designers is to create meanings through design based on culture, history and technology, whilst fulfilling the functional needs of the users, then Spiral Sky is a perfect example to illustrate our “mission accomplished”. Firstly, one must ask what actually takes place in a Banquet Hall of a five star hotel. The answer most likely would be some kind of big events like weddings, anniversaries, international conferences, talks by celebrated and iconic personalities, glamourous gatherings or parties with music and dancing, and the list goes on. So our belief is such that the design should be a direct metaphor of what’s actually happening in the hall itself. The dynamism on the ceiling, together with the special lighting that changes colours is a perfect analogy as well as description of the celebrations under the “Spiral Sky”. The effect is truly powerful and provides relevant significance for everyone as the meaning matches perfectly with the inner desires and state of mind of the users.
Every ambitious design comes with its own set of challenges. What were the biggest challenges and technical hurdles you faced while bringing this project to life, and how did you and your team overcome them?
Besides the moving partitions subdividing the Hall into different sections, thus allowing multiple events to take place simultaneously, there was a series of technical issues which must be considered. Stage spotlights on truss bars, giant LED TV screens, Gobo lights, loud speakers and acoustic concerns, back of house issues, maintenance and cleaning requirements, HVAC, lighting, fire services, and the list never ends. Just the spiralling frames alone on the ceiling with colour-changing LED strips took many hours of trial and error with our special lighting consultants to achieve the desired effect. In addition, just like any other projects, there were numerous practical, buildability and cost related issues to be resolved. So, looking back, we had to overcome countless hurdles including technical, structural, logistical, budgetary ones, in order to realise our common goal which is to construct an out-of-this-world, state-of-the-art Banquet Hall fit for global travellers from all over the world to experience at the Hong Kong International Airport.
Synergy between creative and technical minds make the projects like this possible. Could you share insights on the key partners you collaborated with and how their expertise contributed to achieving this remarkable outcome?
Not forgetting, we have to thank our consultants in Special Lighting Design, Tino Kwan Lighting, and Audio-Visual Engineering, Betrue Limited. They have been stellar throughout and dedicated much effort with their respective input to reach for the highest standards within their field of expertise. Our on-site team and talented designers at our office also made many alterations to continuously improve the design in order to accommodate any ad-hoc changes. It was a long and arduous process to say the least.
With Spiral Sky & Ocean Aria now celebrated on the world stage as “World’s Best Interior Design”, alongside multiple other awards this year. What message do you think these achievements send to the global design community? And what’s next for Alexander Wong Architects?
Hopefully, this media attention will inspire many other architects, interior designers, product, lighting, furniture designers, local as well as international, to strive for more original designs that serve our communities and users better. Perhaps we have set a higher bar today but it will certainly be overtaken by some other projects in the near future. This is so exciting and we cannot wait to see amazing designs on a game-changing level coming from different parts of the world every day! As for our team, we are currently busy with many exciting and challenging projects which keep us awake all night at times. Regarding their details, you will have to wait and see just like everyone else. “Anticipation makes the heart grows fonder” as they say, wouldn’t you agree?
