Last year, designer Paul Semple and his partner, Matthew Shang, merged their Singapore design practice—Distillery—with Australia-based practice HASSELL, which was formed in 1938 and has since expanded to various studio locations in Singapore, the UK, China, and Southeast Asia. Semple now serves as an interior design principal at the firm, and here he talks about his professional start, what luxury guests are looking for, and the firm’s recent and upcoming projects, including Sydney’s Ovolo Wooloomooloo, featured in our May issue.
Did you always know you wanted to be a designer?
Like most creative people I think it was part of how I was built. I grew up wanting to build things, make things, and solve problems. I loved tinkering with tools and timber and would often make things in my dad’s garage. I knew I wanted to do something that allowed me to create. So I consider that I live a blessed life. I get to be part of a team that does what I have always enjoyed doing.
What are some of your first memories of design?
I was always impressed by qualities of different spaces when I was young. I vividly remember the first time that my mother took me to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. I remember the brutality of the interior; the concrete, travertine and art seemed so sophisticated. Only recently did I visit the Gallery again with my mum.
Did your childhood influence your career path?
A pivotal childhood moment for me was visiting a Ken Woolley-designed home finished in the late 1970s—the family home of a childhood friend. I remember being amazed by the feeling of warmth in the house. The open plan living spaces were connected with volumes containing varying ceiling height and changes in direction, with a central courtyard garden fully glazed where you could see one side of the house from the other. Beautiful natural materials with a neutral color scheme of gray slate tiles, western red cedar boarding, and painted bricks and cork. To me it was the most sophisticated home I had seen and it was the beginning of love of design and architecture.
Give us a bit of background: college, first jobs, early lessons learned.
I studied at the University of Technology Sydney, straight out of high school. I started my career as a student with Woods Bagot in Sydney.
My time early on in my career with Misho Vasiljevich, an architect and interior designer in Sydney, was a seminal and grounding experience for me. I learnt very early on with Misho: Look, listen, and try to understand everything you see; everything is made of something— understand what things are made of an how they go together; don’t take yourself to seriously; and maintain the passion.
Give a bit of background on HASSELL and your role at the firm.
HASSELL was established in Australia in 1938 and has since grown to become one of the world’s most reputable multidisciplinary design practices, with studios in the UK, Australia, China, and Southeast Asia. In mid-2015 my partner Matthew Shang and I merged our Singapore-based practice [Distillery] with HASSELL. Having relocated to Singapore, both Matt and I had the opportunity to work with talented architects and designers. We had often spoken of a time when we would work together and for ourselves. It was a time in Singapore where there was support to start a small design business. The firms that we were working with at the time were supportive and encouraging of our decision [to start our own firm]. Distillery was a great period of personal and professional development for both of us. We started with a simple conversation about a project collaboration with HASSELL; there was clear synergy in our design approach and we simply believed in what HASSELL stood for and does. Our merging was a natural progression for both businesses. Our focus at HASSELL is to continue to create exceptional design journeys for our clients and their guests; the coming together of our teams has focused and increased our ability to do more great design in more places.
What is a recently opened project that you are most proud of and why?
HASSELL recently worked with Ovolo Hotels to create the flagship property in Australia. Ovolo is a young, energetic lifestyle brand and our approach to the design of the Woolloomooloo-based hotel was to bring a new lease of life to a historic building, injecting a sense of vitality and attracting a new generation of guests. By breaking up the space into smaller intimate zones we were inviting people to linger. Guests nowadays want to be able to work flexibly in a variety of settings but also easily switch off and have spaces to socialize and connect, and this diverse range of spaces allows for that. The hotel has only recently opened, but it is already being recognised as a go-to destination. Our larger international team had the opportunity to take over the property recently—it was a real joy to be part of project that we helped create.
A project on the boards that you are most excited about?
In our Singapore studio we are working on an exciting bar in Beijing. It is not a particularly large project but the brief is intriguing. We are creating a luxurious contemporary cocktail lounge on top of one of the tallest buildings in Beijing. It takes in the whole of the Beijing skyline, you can see to Tiananmen Square even on an overcast day.
What’s your office like? Corporate culture?
Our Singapore-based studio is on the second story of a group of shop houses in Chinatown. Three separate spaces have come together to form one. It is a broad open environment that encourages design collaboration and conversations. Our culture is one of inclusion and sharing. We encourage an open design dialogue with the whole team, whereby if you have an idea that you’ve researched and tested it, will form part of the conversation.
What do you find are the most challenging and exciting aspects of your job?
Staying true to the concept that must frame all our work. Then retaining the integrity of this concept from beginning to end. As designers we need to create strong and defined ideas that can herald a project through the journey from the idea to the outcome.
What are luxury hotel guests looking for today? How are you and your clients responding?
Whether staying in a luxury urban hotel or a simple beach resort, a great experience is one where all the touchpoints make me feel great or bring a little joy. A seamless journey that just feels right.
Personally, the best hotel experiences are those in which my comfort is a key consideration and where my hosts have thought about what I would want while still giving me curated choice. If I trust my host then I trust that they are offering me the best curated selection of services and products. So much of this is defined by how a property is managed, and a good design outcome is one that understands how to define and support this.
I am a designer, so of course I am obsessed with detail and finish. Good lighting is a must. If the lighting is good it can be very good, but if it is bad, it can be horrid.
Any new amenity spaces in the hotel?
Hotel guests are not as easily categorized as they once were, and loyalty to brand is not the driver that it once was. Guests are better informed and better traveled and are prepared to try an experience if they get a recommendation from a trusted source. That source could be through so many different channels: social media, accommodation review sites, booking portals, bloggers, and more traditional media. Of course there is also the Airbnb effect. People are increasingly looking for more authentic residential experiences that have the added benefit of being localized. A guest may be a long term and loyal regular at your hotel, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to also try out a fabulous apartment they sourced through a friend or on Airbnb.
The lines are increasingly blurred across our lives, personal and private, work and home, group and individual. I see that hotels are working to express and celebrate these blurred lines.
Is there a designer or architect you admire and why?
I love the work that Kerry Phelan and her team [at Kerry Phelan Design Office] do. Kerry has a wonderful sense of space, materiality, and humor. Her work understands design history while having a unique and contemporary perspective. Kerry is a wonderful collaborator—and I love clever, well informed, and passionate design collaborators.
What would be your dream project and why?
My dream project is when I am the client and the designer!
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be?
If given the chance I would have been an artist—a painter. I was so passionate about producing when I was younger. I wish I could say that I paint all the time; I have made several attempts in the last few years to set up a space in my apartment to experiment with canvas and some long gestating ideas. My next move will take this in account.
What’s next for HASSELL?
The next for us is doing more of the work we do with passion for client’s who love what we do. We are continuing to work on a broad range of significant projects that span a range of disciplines and sectors from urban transport, urban design, hospitality, commercial and workplace, health, education and science, sport and entertainment, and arts and culture. Among the exciting projects underway or to be completed over the coming months are Darling Harbour transformation in Sydney, Melbourne Airport Terminal 4, Perth Stadium, University of Brighton in the UK, Summer Hill Flour Mill in Sydney, and headquarters for Medibank and Sina.
