April_1966 — Page 61

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Thai Suite of the Hong Kong Hilton. A stone rubbing decorates the wall. The carpet has a lotus blossom theme

itself maybe a picture or work of art that tells you instantly what country or region you are staying in.

The second phase of a hotel in- terior is the designing of the public rooms, Here we do not build proto- types, because each public room is a thing unto itself and only manufac- tured once.

At this stage, we get involved in the very difficult aspect of the theme room: the idea of a main dining room in a hotel is definitely dead

there will be no more main dining rooms in first class hotels any place in the world. People are bored with the stuffy atmosphere of having a numbered table that they have to sit at for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The idea of having change and variety in the hotel has resulted from the fact that human beings want change and variety in their daily pat- tern. They may want a reliable break- fast every morning, but they like to experiment for lunch or dinner. The speciality restaurant has been design- ed to fit these requirements and hotels now offer variety in eating.

The merchandising of food is an important aspect; this means the res- taurant has to have more to sell than just food, such as atmosphere and mood, and the theme of the room dicates these things. Usually the theme is national or international, and the food served in it is closely relat- ed to this theme.

Each hotel should have three or four speciality areas a coffee shop. espresso bar, a grille room, a dining

Far East Architect & Builder April, 1966

room that sells national food, and if each of these is worked out individu- ally it will be an entity in itself, apart from the hotel as a main being.

When we are deciding on the theme for a restaurant, we have found that the citizens of the country in- volved are usually too self-conscious about choosing a theme because they live in the country it is all a little bit taken for granted, but the

Corner of a bed- room in the Thai Suite, Hong Kong Hilton

foreigner is bolder in his appraisal and analysis of the country's charac- ter and can pick out, with less self- consciousness, themes, devices, ideas that can be developed.

It may be the name of a material used, the name of a style of food, or possibly a flower or a tree many things can be used. In the Philip- pines, we are using the name of a sea shell as the theme for a supper club

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