Heritage and hospitality

Hi Nick, thanks for sitting down with us. As our Head of Hotels - how can a hotel’s history make a stay feel more special for guests? 

Hotel guests have long sought authentic experiences, which heritage properties are well placed to provide and which has now evolved into a demand for transformative experiences. This is more than beautifully crafted or conserved interiors – it seeks to offer guests an immersion into the culture of the building and its local environment as an insight into the city they are visiting. Developing and involving the guest in the story of how the building was developed and how its’ neighbourhood has changed over time, offers huge potential for unique and customisable experiences.

What’s your favourite example of turning a historic building into a modern hotel?  

Our work at Minley Manor in Hampshire, which was recently granted Planning and Listed building consent for conversion into a luxury hotel destination is a great example. Designed and built by Henry Clutton in the French Gothic style for the Currie family in the 1860’s, the manor is a ‘significant example of a country estate with buildings and a designed landscape forming an integral composition reflecting late C19 taste’. We worked with the current owners to devise the new use which involved close collaboration with stakeholders including Historic England and the development of a Conservation Management Plan which supported a series of new interventions to accommodate the new use while protecting the character of the estate. A carefully planned phasing strategy allowed us to demonstrate how development could unlock investment in the historic fabric. 

How do you keep the heritage character while meeting today’s hospitality needs? 

Hotel guests have long sought authentic experiences, which heritage properties are well placed to provide and which has now evolved into a demand for transformative experiences. This is more than beautifully crafted or conserved interiors – it seeks to offer guests an immersion into the culture of the building and its local environment as an insight into the city they are visiting. Developing and involving the guest in the story of how the building was developed and how its’ neighbourhood has changed over time, offers huge potential for unique and customisable experiences.  

What changes do you think we’ll see in heritage-led hotel design over the next 10 years?

Technology is always the thing that changes most quickly and is often a challenging aspect of hotel projects which can take years from conception to completion. The hope is that the advances in generative AI will not lead to reductive and recycled hotel experiences but instead help on at least two fronts: offer genuine opportunities to make hotel operations more efficient while also giving guests greater ability to customise and co-author their stay.

As a practice, we are exploring the use of these technologies to describe rich and compelling hotel concepts which, as we have always done, draw on historic precedent.

Prompted and managed knowledgeably, these technologies can describe new and sometimes unexpected worlds with a startling level of efficiency. 

How can hospitality in heritage buildings be both sustainable and full of character? Can you share a project that has really got the balance right? 

The first thing to say is the two are not mutually exclusive! Re-using existing buildings, historic or otherwise, saves a significant amount of embodied carbon and our extensive knowledge of working with existing fabric means we are well placed to significantly reduce energy demand at source through fabric enhancements. Working as Heritage Architect in collaboration with Hassell at Sydney’s former Department of Lands Building, we have supported the comprehensive adaptive re-use of the building, unlocking a vibrant new amenity; from luxury experiential retail, elevated food and beverage offerings to rooftop dining and expansive event spaces.

Transforming a long-underutilised government office into a dynamic, publicly accessible destination will elevate the historic Sandstone Precinct’s growing reputation, reinforcing its emergence as one of Sydney’s most vibrant cultural and tourism districts.

The conservation works have been established to preserve the significant visual qualities of The Lands by Capella. This design strategy preserves each room’s connection to the city and ensures these civic spaces continue to inspire. The result is a remarkable, dynamic destination poised to become a central gathering place for Sydneysiders and visitors alike.

What design detail makes guests connect deeply with a place’s history? 

The one quality that existing buildings have is a patina earned over many years of occupation and use which new buildings simply don’t have. Architects and interior designers pay a lot of attention to tactile surfaces and the activation spaces that guests come into direct contact with as these are the things that people remember. They offer physical evidence of the intangible aspects of a building’s heritage that generate emotional connections with a place. These are also often also things that people miss once the building is gone and it’s too late to recapture them.  

Which new trend in hospitality do you think will work best in historic hotels? 

Converting existing buildings into hotels means you often need to contend with and accommodate eccentricities and constraints you might not have to deal with in a new building. Counterintuitively, these qualities provide the opportunity to create unique spaces and experiences that guests are looking for. Carefully considered design and a deft hand will ensure that you can provide consistency in quality that embraces the variety that existing buildings offer.   

Since joining Purcell, you’ve worked on some cool projects, like the Glasshouse Urban Retreat concept. How does it show where hotel design might be headed?  

One of the things that working on historic buildings teaches you is that many of the challenges we face now have been around for a long time, only the tools and technology that we have to address them has evolved. We often draw a proverbial ‘golden thread’ between the historic use of the building, it’s evolution over time and it’sits current and proposed use.  

The Aggie (or Business Design Centre in Islington) was designed to address the challenges of a rapidly evolving agricultural industry that was radically reinvented by the Victorians to move animals and foodstuffs over vast distances between producers and markets. Partly as a consequence of this, our generation suffers from a disconnect between food and where it comes from. Our hotel concept articulates a vision for the former agricultural hall which moves food production back into the heart of the local community integrated with a zero-waste, plant-based luxury hospitality experience. I would stay in that hotel!