SPECIAL REPORT: HYDE PARK

CHIC HOTEL

WITH AN AWESOME VIEWBy Bev Hermanson

Looking over at the latest of Southern Sun’s hotels from the plush residences of Hyde Park, one of Johan-nesburg’s most elite suburbs, you could be forgiven if you assumed that there was always a hotel perched on the rise, at the intersection of William Nicol Drive and Jan Smuts Avenue. It took Southern Sun, the operators, and Hyprop, the owners of the property, some considerable time to reach this historic point. Each celebrating co-incidentally their 40��th anniversary this year, it seems the relationship is entirely appropriate.

The Southern Sun Hyde Park Hotel is remarkable, not only for its accommodation offering and its spectacular

270��° views of the northern and western suburbs of

Johannesburg, but structurally, it is a triumph in its

engineering and design implementation. Set atop

the 7-storey parkade of the Hyde Park Shopping Cen-

tre, the hotel comprises 132 suites, a rooftop gym,

boardrooms and conference facilities, two lounges,

an exclusive whiskey bar, an international restau-

rant, as well as a pool and outdoor terrace. Entering

at the lower street level from basement parking, vis-

itors are whisked eight floors up to where it’s already

becoming the place to see and be seen by Johannes-

burg’s elite.

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Keeping it light

The first phase of the R180��-million building was hardly noticeable as it involved the strengthening of the foun-dations and the support columns of the Parkade. The challenge to the designers was to keep the structural elements of the hotel as light as possible. Room sizes were also restricted to what the columns beneath could support, providing plenty of challenges to the interior designers.

The walls are mainly 165mm drywall partitioning that have an internal layer of acoustic thermal insulation, which is a fairly new concept for construction here in South Africa.

“We had to come up with walling that would equal or exceed the decibel rating of a double brick wall with cement plaster on both sides, but without the weight,” explains Carl Bartleman of Saint Gobain. “We chose a 15mm fire rated gypsum board which we used as a double layer on each side of 10��2mm cavitylite batt insulation. This gave us both sound and thermal in-sulation.”

In addition to the weight reduction, the tailor made dry walling saved a great deal of space overall, which was especially important in determining the layout of the bedrooms. For the bathrooms, the inner layer of the walls was replaced with a moisture resistant gypsum board and sliding doors were easily added to fit between separated drywalls, to save space. Special loadbearing upright studs were used for door frames and in places where items would be attached to the walls, such as TVs, toilets and the like.

“We had a foreman representing Saint Gobain on site to project manage the installation. This was important as our 10�� year SpecSure guarantee requires that the installation has to be correctly specified and super-vised from start to finish.”

The walls have been given substance through the appli-cation of specialised cladding and wall papering so, to the eye, the structures look pretty solid. Sympathetic to the acoustic requirements of the hotel, the interior designers additionally sourced carpeting that has a high-density foam backing that is excellent for absorbing sound.

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Internationally contemporary

It was decided not to do the predictable ‘ethnic’ thing

for this hotel, but rather expand on the locality, which

implies elements of sophistication, elegance and an

internationally contemporary approach to the style

and décor. The interior designers chosen to tackle the

task were Source Interior Brand Architects from Cape

Town, with the result that many of the furnishings

and finishes were brought up from the Mother City to

grace the City of Gold’s latest jewel.

“We were approached by Southern Sun and Hyprop

to conceive a unique guest experience, which in itself is

a great honour,” adds Jeremy Stewart, creative director

from Source. “The experience is a fusion of modern and

classic influences, combined with a sense of locale.”

“Part of the success from Source’s point of view was

applying our design ethos from interior architecture

and design, right through to textile design, styling,

music and staff uniforms, enabling us to control the

entire 3-dimensional guest experience, which is key

to the ultimate success of any hospitality project.”

The public spaces had to have character at all times

of the day and night and so the décor theme, rather

than being exotic or cheesy, is simply an expression

of rhythm and repetition. The colour palette is muted,

punctuated only by occasional splashes of vivid hues.

Textures are either physical, such as the Duraglass

wallpaper that is thickly ‘woven’ and, as it turns out,

designed to take paint, or merely visual. Rhythm is

achieved through a series of contrasts – black and

white, hard and shiny surfaces punctuated by textures,

and light and dark spaces.

In the main lounge, a selection of shades from Tom

Dixon’s Beat collection were used for the lighting.

“Tom Dixon is a British lighting and furniture design

and manufacturing company that we represent here

in South Africa. Tom Dixon himself has won awards

worldwide for his unique designs and we fell in love

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with his design and his brand.” says Kate Liebenberg,

managing director of Crema Design. “The Beat Light

is made from hand beaten brass using the rapidly

vanishing skills from Indian master craftsmen. Once

made, the beaten brass ages creating a patina black

external surface in contrast to the warm golden inte-

rior of the shades.” The contrast of the smooth internal

glow with the external texture of the fittings adds an

extra element of interest to this public space.

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Edison Power Gautengare proud to be

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Hyde Park Hotel

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Showing the way

Capitalising on the views, the architects have opted

for as much transparency as possible. Floor to ceiling

glass walls grace the restaurant and lounge areas.

The pool terrace is bordered by glass balustrades, so

that the rim flow pool looks as though it’s stretching

into eternity.

The Whiskey Lounge and the Biche Restaurant even

have liquor enclosures made entirely of glass. This

glassing of the 8th floor, known as the Lifestyle level,

not only reduces the need for lighting during the day,

it performs a dual function, giving the impression at

night that the floors above are floating over the

Parkade, as the artificial lighting creates a visual

cushion between the two structures.

It has become Southern Sun’s mission to reduce energy

consumption in all of their establishments, so with

this hotel, LED lighting and energy saving light bulbs

have been used from the outset.

“There’s a specific psychology behind the different

colours and intensities of light,” says Mardre Meyer,

project designer at Source. “While plants are photo-

tropic, people are photophylic, so in the passages

leading to the rooms, we have dimmed the lights and

put brighter lighting in each door alcove. This pulls

people through the dim spaces towards the light.”

Another part of the dim-light philosophy, explains

Bram Joynt of LKA Architects, is that people seem to

talk louder when the lighting is bright, but their conver-

sation is more subdued in dim lighting. This is important

when considering the acoustics and the fact that most

of the walls are the new dry wall acoustic partitioning

rather than bricks and mortar. Encouraging people

subliminally to make less noise ensures an enhanced

feeling of privacy for the guests in their rooms.

“It’s amazing how disorienting light can be,” continues Mardre. “While you can’t have too much shadow, people do need to have the contrasts of light versus shadow to give them a sense of perspective, otherwise their judgement of distance becomes warped. At the end

of each passage, we have a window covered with a voile curtain, that allows in natural light. This balances the perspective and gives guests a sense of the time of day, so that their experience is not surreal.”

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Breaking the moulds with fabrics

Out on the terrace, the designers chose light, modular furniture that can be configured a number of ways. The cushions, covered in bold black and white florals, are all the more exceptional as the materials represent a breakthrough in outdoor fabric treatment, so that the cushions can be left out in the elements without weathering. The rimflow pool, as the focal point of the outdoor terrace, is just deep enough so that one can cool off, while still partaking of liquid refresh-ments at chest height. It’s all about being smooth and sophisticated – no dive-bombing or Olympic length training, just a quick dip to cool off. Nothing too strenuous.

The indoor Whiskey Lounge looks out over the patio, but has its own air of exclusivity. The occasional chairs are just comfortable enough to stimulate easy

conversation without tempting you to fall asleep. The

soft gold vinyl ‘fabric’ is tactile, yet highly durable,

great for high traffic uses, yet way more sophisticated

than the vinyls of the 70��s and 80��s. On a raised section

to the rear of the lounge, plush couches offer greater

comfort for more relaxed gatherings.

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Fine dining

Bright and airy, the Biche Restaurant is an Italian restaurant with a twist – somehow a sushi bar has found its way into the formula. This will no doubt become a great hit with the hotel’s international clientele. The furniture is slightly minimalist, the colour palette muted, to allow patrons to concen-trate on what’s most important – the cuisine.

The wine closet displays a selection of local and imported wines that could set you back anywhere

from R80�� to R250��0�� per bottle.

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- Western Cape -

Cavendish Square

Canal Walk

Garden Route Mall

Tygervalley Shopping Centre

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Hyde Park

Rosebank Mall

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Across to business

On the same level as the restaurant, lounges and pool

terrace, there is also a business centre and a separate

wing housing boardrooms and conference facilities.

And to help the busy executive unwind during his stay,

on the top floor there is a gym with weights and cardio-

vascular training equipment. Again, huge expanses of

glass reveal the stunning view of the suburbs, which is

given double impact by the large mirrors on the walls.

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Easy sleep

An important aspect of the Southern Sun Hyde Park Hotel

accommodation management is the access control

through the smart key system that also controls the

lighting and air-conditioning in each room to ensure

efficient energy consumption.

Although the rooms are modest in size, they nevertheless

exude comfort. The modern padded headboards are

covered in high fashion fabrics. The TV unit has enough

space so that it can be used as a desk and the bathrooms,

while compact, give the illusion of spaciousness, with

their frameless showers and backlit mirrors. The chic

style is carried through to the public cloackrooms

with their similarly demurely mirrors.

In addition to the front entrance to the hotel through

its swish revolving door or the alternative of the base-

ment parking access, there’s also a fun ‘back way’ to

the Hyde Park Shopping Centre, giving guests a secure

playground to explore at their leisure.

From a wide selection of restaurants, cinemas, banks,

travel agents, hairdressers and beauty salons, to exqui-

site fashion boutiques, jewellers and book stores, the

Hyde Park Shopping Centre is a destination all its

own. With its new hospitality offering in the form of the

Southern Sun Hyde Park Hotel, the centre is sure to grow

and achieve even greater international acclaim. <

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Photos by Anine Scholtz.

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