London-based experiential design studio Blue Sky Hospitality has nearly 200 projects under its belt in Europe and beyond since its 2002 inception, including Nusantao in Doha, Studio Grigio in Switzerland’s InterContinental Davos, and various F&B outlets in the JW Marriott Absheron Baku in Azerbaijan. Here, Henry Chebaane, the firm’s creative director, discusses his drive to tell stories, the importance of branding, and enabling human connections, transactions, and interactions through hospitality design.
Did you always know you wanted to be a designer?
At a young(er) age, my first aspirations were to explore the entire planet—its cultures and beyond—archeologist, anthropologist, biologist, astronaut, filmmaker. None of this happened and yet, today the research and conception process in our work feels often as if eventually all this merged into one.
What are some of your first memories of design?
I have always been an avid reader, from classic mythology and history to philosophy and science fiction. As a child I felt compelled to physically tell stories using various crafts: starting with throwing food around, and progressing to poetry, sketching, watercolor, oil painting, clay modeling, wood-turning. This continues today, when time allows (though I now eat the food instead of plastering walls with it).
Did where you grew up influence your career path?
I was born and grew up in Paris, where, in addition to pigeons, I was exposed to many of the things that have become long-term professional interests: arts, architecture, scenography, and gastronomy.
Give us a bit of your background: college, first jobs, early lessons learned.
While studying fine arts, marketing, and existential psychology in the 1980s, I had the chance to meet [fashion designer] Pierre Cardin, which was a revelation on many levels. He had recently bought Maxim’s restaurant and was developing it into a lifestyle brand. He also had an amazing public space called Espace Pierre Cardin, which was a center of excellence to promote experimental arts and hospitality—an art gallery, fashion catwalk, boutique, restaurant, bar, events space, theater, music hall—all under one roof and always full of artists and creative people.
Working and studying there with his team made me realize very early on the importance of brand image, product development, market relevance, operational flexibility, and mise-en-scène with a specific point of view—essential lessons on how to balance commercial and creative considerations into the design of profitable business spaces.
Why and how did you start your own firm?
It was a gradual process. After compulsory military service, I left France to settle in London and took a job in a hotel to pay the rent. Things worked out, so for 12 years I had a double occupation: hospitality management by day and design student by night. Beside various luxury hospitality brands like the Savoy Group, I also had the chance to work with Anouska Hempel running boutique hotels, and with Terence Conran operating restaurants and retail. Eventually, I saved enough to start a fashion and lifestyle store in Chelsea, London selling my own designs. I was then asked by several ultra-high net worth clients to do the interiors for their residences. I prefer brand development and commercial design, so by 2002 I sold the retail business to start a hospitality design studio, bringing together my knowledge of commercial operations, retail marketing, storytelling, and aesthetics. The first few years were mostly advising on restaurant design as consultants for hotel developers, operators, and much larger interior design firms. In time, I could reinvest enough to recruit and develop my own team (currently 23 people). Today, our aim is to remain boutique and focused on high-end lifestyle and dining projects, creating commercial assets with strong foundations and a story to tell, what we call “Blue Sky Re:Imagineering.”
Can you discuss some of your recent projects?
We try to take projects that have a broad range of creative deliverables from naming, branding, space-planning, interiors, lighting, tabletop, uniforms, art curation, and communications so that we can be fully in control of the overall product design and deliver a distinctive point of view to market.
Some recent projects include Nusantao in the Four Seasons Doha in Qatar, Studio Grigio in Switzerland’s InterContinental Davos, and in the in the JW Marriott Absheron Baku in Azerbaijan, Zest, Razzmatazz cocktail bar, Fireworks steakhouse, and OroNero. Azerbaijan being in full boom, we have designed in its capital city an additional 21 individual restaurants, bars, and leisure destinations with more coming up, including inside a new 800-key Autograph Collection hotel. We are currently working in several other countries for luxury developments, fashion designers, and high profile chefs, but it is all confidential for the moment.
Is there a challenging project of which you are especially proud?
I guess most designers will say that each project is special because they represent a particular moment in time and set of circumstances that are seldom repeated.
We are opening in a few weeks a 33,000-square-foot building on the Caspian Sea, in Baku, which we call Atelier 61. This is the conversion of a ship repair workshop built in 1961, which we have transformed into an experiential leisure space over two floors of restaurants, bars, private dining, art gallery, a performance stage, and so on.
This was especially challenging because our first major project in that country, Chinar, opened more than five years ago and has been a runaway success, with more than 90,000 fans on Facebook. Since then, having designed another two dozen restaurants in the same city, expectations from investors and the public are much higher each time, and we have to ensure that we keep innovating while delivering long-lasting value through our brand design strategy and aesthetic choices.
What are you looking forward to at your office?
Every day has its own good moments and musical soundtrack, but I particularly like our regular design team workshops that include Miss Molly and Mr Mojo, my two border terriers. These 3-year-old executive team members are involved in every aspect of our business, from doing rub tests on carpet samples, reviewing pizza suppliers, vetting work applicants, and psychology-testing potential clients.
What do you find are the most challenging and exciting aspects of your job?
We care deeply that our clients can make the optimum reputational and financial returns from our contribution. Yet, the design and branding of a space cannot exist in a vacuum: it is entirely reliant on how much the client will refrain from injecting personal taste and then how well the operating team will execute the everyday delivery, once open.
So we are dealing constantly with moving parts, differing agendas and cultural backgrounds, and varying levels of competence among the stakeholders that require constant polite, but firm, diplomacy. No matter how clever, innovative, and thorough the design is, a car performance is only as good as its driver. A balance between ambition and humility helps everyone keep a healthy sense of perspective.
What is the most important thing to remember when designing a restaurant—both in terms of branding and interiors?
Without making any claims of particular knowledge, as a personal point of view, I believe that the main aim of design for commercial spaces is to enable human connections, transactions, and interactions. This aim should be provided as a sustainable solution with consideration for all stakeholders in the future business for which we design—owner, management, staff, suppliers, the local community. This should inform not just ethical and environmental considerations, but also knowing how much to spend in relation to the marketplace, target audience, and local capabilities and opportunities. Spend too much on design and construction and returns will underperform. Spend too little and the business will never achieve its true potential.
Is there an architect or designer you most admire? Why?
Many, but I would highlight Walter Gropius and Raymond Loewy, both great minds able to deliver commercial solutions through a wide range of aesthetic choices. I also admire the works of many filmmakers who are able to articulate and direct a story in multiple layers of narrative for different audiences—a similar engagement with human emotions drives our work process every day in our studio.
What would be your dream project and why?
The first resort on the moon. We would have to create new design paradigms, dealing with severe physical constraints while leveraging the infinite possibilities of limitless horizons on psychological and philosophical levels. Maybe we would find it not that different after all. Closer to home, any project on Earth that has genuine ecology and cultural sensitivity at heart while also looking into the future. I don’t believe in zoos and museums: their time has passed. Our planet and its people can do so much better for preservation and communication of cultural legacy and the natural world. For example, food is the ultimate human connector and restaurants are the ultimate stage to articulate this, so it is conceivable that restaurants could take on part of the cultural and educational functions of current museums and galleries.
If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?
A good dinner is about food and environment, which should facilitate conversation and human interactions. One of my favorite topics is philosophy, so Confucius, Avicenna, Immanuel Kant, and Umberto Eco are all guests that I would like to share a table with.
Where would you eat and what would you be having?
At home with simple, global, authentic, comfort food: Xiao long bao dumplings, Thai green curry, Aubergine parmigiana, plus the odd bit of (unpasteurized) Camembert with sourdough bread.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be?
It’s difficult to conceive an alternative, but maybe a gardening baker or a baking gardener.
