It’s all in the name for Concrete founder Rob Wagemans. “We wanted to be honest and transparent,” he says of his multidisciplinary firm, “and concrete is a material that is extremely solid—what you see is what you get.” Wagemans cut his teeth designing everything from offices to coffee bars before finding his niche with citizenM, the lifestyle-meets-hostel hotel brand he helped build from the ground up while redefining the meaning of affordable luxury. “I have always been interested in being a bit disruptive,” says Wagemans, who is also behind Zoku, the flexible home-office hybrid aparthotel in Amsterdam. “I like [working with] companies and people who want to get the best out of this world and don’t make decisions based on fear.”
Building a Brand
With 17 hotels open, citizenM is emblematic of Concrete’s forward-thinking vision. Wagemans, who also serves as the brand’s creative director, says the challenge of creating a luxury experience at an affordable price point gave him the freedom to push design limits. That means incorporating elements that are highly specific to their locations in a direct effort to ensure the brand doesn’t become generic or tired as it expands. In New York, for example, the Bowery outpost features street art that takes cues from its surroundings, while the recently opened Kuala Lumpur hotel integrates the city’s urban jungle feel with a huge indoor courtyard overflowing with greenery. “If you look at our work, not all of it is extremely serious,” he says. “We always take a lighthearted [approach].”
Curated Chaos
Wagemans draws inspiration from urban environments, natural chaos, and food. Still, getting to the center of the concept is paramount. This process ranges from throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks to trusting his intuition. “As soon as we solve the essence in a logical way, that gives us the freedom to create things around it.” The result is, as he puts it, curated chaos. “We try [to put] imperfections or mistakes in our designs because it is much more human [that way],” he says. “There is nothing more boring than paradise.” Consider citizenM’s Zurich outpost. Located in one of Switzerland’s wealthiest cities, Wagemans injected a sense of humor into the design. “We wanted to prove that with only a little bit of money, you can have more fun than if you had all the money [in the world],” he says.
Maiden Voyage
Wagemans had mixed feelings about taking on a cruise ship, a first for the firm. “It’s like going to prison,” he says. “They lock you [in and] decide what you do and what you eat.” But when Virgin Voyages approached him about collaborating on two F&B venues on its inaugural ship, the Scarlet Lady, he saw an opportunity to reinvent cruise ship design. (He’s also collaborating on the brand’s second ship, the Valiant Lady, setting sail in 2021.) There’s the laboratory-inspired Test Kitchen and the flamboyant Razzle Dazzle, which hosts a drag brunch against a backdrop of red and white stripes and a World War I print that covers the whole space. “Virgin is still sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll in the most positive way,” he says, presenting the opportunity to make sure “every single second on the ship is fun.”
An A-frame-style greenhouse marks Coperaco Café in Harrison, New Jersey, the boutique coffee roaster’s first brick-and-mortar outpost
The Test Kitchen on Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady will include a laboratory concept where guests can take cooking classes
A two-story art wall takes centerstage in the lobby at the citizenM Bowery in New York
Portraits of locals on the façade of the citizenM Bowery add an element of surprise
Photography by Chris Cooper, Ewout Huibers, Richard Powers, and courtesy of Concrete
