Jan Hendzel Studio has reimagined the design of two suites for the Grade II listed Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green. The newly designed spaces will showcase Jan Hendzel Studios’ new furniture collection which combines functional pieces, sculptural elements and their signature textural finish with unexpected spatial design, transforming these hotel rooms into a tactile, gallery-like experience.
In designing the suites and the studio’s new collection, we wanted to strike a balance between play and comfort. Where a traditional hotel room might encourage total introspection that takes the visitor away from their surroundings, these suites invite touch and stimulate creative interaction with the pieces. Texture and sculptural finesse are two striking signature characteristics of out furniture designs. So in these suites you’ll find smooth curved edges on coffee tables, ageing cracks in green wooden sculptures, hand-carved scallops on mounted mirrors. It’s in these details where the hand of the maker is most evident.
Our collective expertise in materiality and their curiosity in texture means a timber-first mentality when redesigning the suites. As a studio that has historically worked with British timber and UK sourced materials, it was important to incorporate these into the design – whether in the more sculptural furniture pieces or the more subtle interventions. You’ll see it in the soft pattern of the London Plane timber, the capital’s street trees that were sourced from Denmark Hill, close to their Woolwich workshop and studio.
In the new spaces, you’ll find new furniture designs paired with pieces from the studio’s existing collection. Familiar ripples echoing their debut Bowater collection are found on kitchen cabinet doors; shapely coffee tables with faceted edges and curvaceous textured knobs. By contrast: a kitchen countertop made from glittering crinoid marble that again invites touch thanks to the contrasting honed surface and quarried edge drawing your attention. A new set of dining chairs that reference both French bistro as well as Welsh Stick – a classic Jan Hendzel Studio fusion of contrasting designs – are paired with the studio’s Ruston Refectory and Pier dining tables; as well as our first sofa and armchair, using wedge joinery and upholstered in seventies green. Fabrics were carefully considered based on colour, texture and composition to create a blissful visual experience.
Jan Hendzel Studio has collaborated with Pickleson Paint, a new paint brand based just a stone’s throw from the Town Hall Hotel, to create a range of colours that spoke to the design and local area. You’ll see licks of East End Clay on the walls, an entirely new shade custom made specially for this project, alongside the brand’s Drunk Tahini and Tarte Tan shades. Elsewhere, our new collection is complemented by lighting, upholstery and accessories from British brands including A Rum Fellow, Yarn Collective, Hand & Eye Studio, Lights&Lamps and Fariceramics. The crinoid marble used for the kitchen countertops was sourced from Mandel quarry in Derby. These are the local touches that make the space unique.
Beyond the monolithic furniture pieces that we have crafted, there are smaller and more subtle interventions to notice, too. These all create new vistas so you can notice the details from different perspectives. Some pieces are evident; others are meant to be discovered.
