William Tell

Hotel ICON in Tsim Sha Tsui East stands as a testament to design innovation. To mark its official opening, Hotel ICON hosted a conference titled ‘Creating a Brand Icon Through Design’ and invited six of its celebrated designers to address the 300-plus audience. Among the invited speakers was William Lim of CL3 Architects who created ICON’s distinctive interiors. The award-winning Hong Kong designer outlined four key factors when approaching hospitality design.

Think: Consider all options to challenge conventions. For Hotel ICON, William wanted to open up the lobby space to encourage guests to use the area as a casual lounge.

Live: As William explained, it’s crucial to consider your own hotel experiences, apply these to your design and question what travellers need. In designing Hotel ICON’s guestrooms, William and his team created curved bathroom walls to open up and maximize the space.

Show: Create an eye-catching, memorable moment – whether it’s a rooftop pool, a unique mix of materials or a standout feature, this is the one aspect that guests will buzz about.

Sell: This one may seem obvious, but it’s worth stating: Designers need to get on board with the operating concept. Once the designers understand the brief, are in sync with hotel operators and working as a team, everything else falls into place.

Jenny Lo