Behind The Design: London’s First Luxury All-Suite Hotel

“Discreet” is a word that frequently bandied about in association with The Emory, London’s first all-suite luxury hotel. Yet the property, the latest from Maybourne, is housed in a glass building with quite distinctive architecture and floor-to-ceiling windows in each suite. If anything, it’s a quiet exhibitionist. With pretty major street cred, at that. The edifice, in a prime Knightsbridge location a stone’s throw from Hyde Park, was one of the last projects by the Pritzker-prize-winning architect Richard Rogers of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. Rogers, who died in 2021, was perhaps best known as one of the architects, along with Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchini, of the Pompidou Center in Paris. After his death, Ivan Harbour (a senior partner at the firm, which has been rebranded as RSHP) saw the project through to completion.

The design of the building is significant for many reasons, most notably that it is Maybourne’s first ground-up build in London in over 50 years. The company, which is Qatari-owned, manages some of London’s most iconic hotels including Claridge’s, The Connaught, and The Berkeley. Two are in notable historic buildings: Claridge’s dates to 1812, The Connaught to 1815. The Berkeley’s current building dates to the 1970s, but the hotel has existed in one form or another since the 18th century. (The company’s portfolio also includes The Maybourne Beverly Hills and Maybourne Riviera on France’s Côte d’Azur). The Emory signals that change may be in the air. “We are trying to constantly keep fresh and relevant,” noted Michelle Wu, Maybourne’s Global Head of Design. “With The Emory, we wanted to create something with a much more residential approach.”

It begins with the entry, which is not on the main street but hidden in a cobbled alleyway nestled between Belgravia and Knightsbridge. The hotel’s General Manager has described the diminutive lobby as “all about discretion,” noting that there “is no Instagrammable moment.” But nowhere is the residential approach more evident than the decision to make every room in the property a suite (ranging in size from 592 square feet for a junior suite to over 3,200 square feet for The Emory Penthouse), and hiring the world’s top interior designers to work their creative magic on them.

Rémi Tessier, perhaps best known for his yacht and private plane designs, was tapped for the public spaces including The Emory Bar on the ground floor, as well as the tenth-floor rooftop’s Bar 33 and The Emory Cigar Merchants.

Tessier also designed the Surrenne, a subterranean private members club dedicated to wellbeing and longevity, boasting the UK’s first Tracy Anderson studio, and a menu designed by nutritionist-to-the-stars Rosemary Ferguson, served up in the Surrenne Café. (Fun fact: Tessier’s previous work for Maybourne includes the Claridge’s Penthouse, said to be the most expensive room in London, with a rumored rate of $60,000 per night).

Rigby & Rigby was tasked with creating the over 3,000 square-foot glass-wrapped penthouse. The suites on the floors below were divided amongst four world-class interior designers: André Fu, Pierre Yves Rochon, Alexandra Champalimaud, and Patricia Urquiola. “A lot of our guests have used designers for their own homes, and we wanted to provide that level of thoughtfulness and detail in the suites, ” said Wu, adding that “none of our rooms are truly identical, which adds a level of discovery to the guest experience.”

Of the four suite designers, Fu was one of just two who had previously worked with the brand. His first foray was a suite at the Berkeley Hotel, which is located right next door to The Emory. The Hong-Kong based designer has created eight spaces for Maybourne properties over the years, ranging from penthouse suites to spas and a bar. The Emory, he explained, offered a rare (for London) opportunity with its floor-to-ceiling windows and views of Hyde Park. “You’re really close to that endless stretch of landscape, so it’s about taking the landscape as a natural backdrop to the hotel and extending that into the room,” he explained.

Fu did this via what he described as a “a collage of intimate moments within the room that intertwine with each other, imagining how a guest would use and experience the space.”

Sitting and sleeping areas are at once cozy and maximize views, swaddled in a soothing color palette incorporating sage and olive green (a nod to the outdoors), dusty rose and shades of gold (inspired by the sunset). Thoughtful use of natural materials throughout the suite, including rich woods (most notably the Sycamore used for radial marquetry panels), glass, travertine and richly veined Calacatta viola marble.

Many pieces were sourced from his Andre Fu Living collections of furniture, lighting and decorative accessories; others were specifically designed and made for the suites. A rug with different levels of cut pile, for example, was inspired by cobbled pavement Fu observed in Hyde Park. Fu also tapped Art consultant Serena Madi to help select works for the suites. Her curation varies from room to room, and, he maintains “adds an interesting layer of intimacy, and changes the perception of the space.”

Fu often points out that he was born in the East and raised in the West, resulting in cross-cultural references that evoke a sense of place and calm. The Emory, he maintains, “retains the soul of Maybourne in a way that is fresh, and more about the experience of a place than a ‘wow’ factor. It’s a much more innovative and forward-thinking process, and mindset.”