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93FT designs “playful” new Treehouse Hotel in Manchester
93FT has created the playful interiors of Starwood Hotels’ second UK branch of its Treehouse brand.
With chalk boards, patchwork quilts and tree stump furniture, the hotel leans into childhood nostalgia and creative freedom.
Aimed at 25 to 45-year-olds, this Treehouse Hotel is housed in a 1970s concrete building in Manchester’s city centre.
It started life as an office block, but more recently operated as a Renaissance Hotel.
The building started life as an office block
This iteration was designed by Sheffield-based 93FT in collaboration with Starwood Hotels’ international design team.
“Throughout the project we have followed our brand ethos of ‘carefreedom’ whereby we want to transport guests back to a time when they were children, more carefree and able to explore their world creatively,” says Neil Andrew, Starwood’s vice president, design – EMEA.
93FT co-founder Nick Clark echoes this sentiment. “Treehouses are about escaping. They’re about a sense of nostalgia, and feeling young again.”
This extends to every design detail – Barry Sternlicht, the hotel group’s founder wanted these hotels to feel like “a kid had made them,” says Amber Addison, 93FT senior interior designer.
The team worked to strike a careful balance and meet health & safety standards
The challenge was to make this playful environment also be commercial, comfortable and meet health and safety standards, she explains.
And aesthetically, the team had to strike a balance between the designs looking not too ramshackle, but not too polished either.
The agency brought in a mishmash of vintage items from different sources including salvage company Retrouvious, plus reclaimed building materials and a variety of fabrics, to capture that spontaneity of children’s creativity.
Glass Onion created bespoke cushion covers for all 224 bedrooms, using denim off-cuts
For example, vintage clothing business, Glass Onion, which has a store in Sheffield, made cushion covers from denim off-cuts for each of the 224 bedrooms.
“A treehouse can be made of things that your mum doesn’t want in the lounge anymore,” Addison says.
Hence in the restaurant, Pip, there are eclectic lampshades, and one wall is filled with shelves of rainbow glass bottles of different shapes and sizes, which are intended to conjure up the intuitive collecting habits of children.
Meanwhile, the bedrooms are furnished with individually made patchwork quilts, asymmetrical door handles, handmade furniture and larch cladding.
Chalkboards lean into childhood nostalgia and creative freedom
In the entrance, a mix of reclaimed and handmade windows make up the lobby walls. And some of the chairs are made from tree stumps, with old tool handles embedded in them to form a back rest.
This sourcing came easily to 93FT, which brought in 1,400 items for its redesign of London’s Pilgrim Hotel.
Other playful elements include chalkboards, which guests are inviting to doodle on, or they can carve their name on small pieces of wood, which are then hung in the lift lobby as an alternative guestbook.
The agency initially came up with some strong ideas to bring the treehouse concept to life. “We loved the idea of a treehouse in a Treehouse,” Clark says. “We were going to cut some big shapes into the floorplates, and add a big tree with a treehouse at the top.”
Another idea was to have a big swing in the entrance, but neither of these ideas turned out to be feasible.
Existing columns are clad in timber, to give them a tree-like appearance
They were able to install a big artificial tree clad in real bark, which reaches up through the ceiling of the dark, lower-ground reception. Also on this level, the timber walkway is bathed in dappled light in reference to a forest floor. The effect was created by cutting out organic shapes in the ceiling and carefully placing lighting there.
A second tree made of reclaimed timber stands on the mezzanine with a bench at its base.
For phase two of the build, 93FT is designing a presidential suite, and Blacksheep in London is designing a rooftop bar.
In the UK, Manchester Treehouse follows on from Treehouse London in Marylebone designed by Birmingham agency Keane. It is also a transformation of an existing hotel, and that outpost has city-specific elements including Paddington Bear references and London-centric souvenirs.
Further Treehouse locations in the works include Brickell in Miami by Rockwell Group; Riyadh in Saudi Arabia by Blacksheep; and Adelaide in Australia by Woods Bagot.
The glass bottles are intended to conjure up the intuitive collecting habits of children
The bar area features an eclectic mix of light fittings, adding character and visual interest to the space
#93ft #designs #playful #new #treehouse
93FT designs “playful” new Treehouse Hotel in Manchester
93FT has created the playful interiors of Starwood Hotels’ second UK branch of its Treehouse brand.
With chalk boards, patchwork quilts and tree stump furniture, the hotel leans into childhood nostalgia and creative freedom.
Aimed at 25 to 45-year-olds, this Treehouse Hotel is housed in a 1970s concrete building in Manchester’s city centre.
It started life as an office block, but more recently operated as a Renaissance Hotel.
The building started life as an office block
This iteration was designed by Sheffield-based 93FT in collaboration with Starwood Hotels’ international design team.
“Throughout the project we have followed our brand ethos of ‘carefreedom’ whereby we want to transport guests back to a time when they were children, more carefree and able to explore their world creatively,” says Neil Andrew, Starwood’s vice president, design – EMEA.
93FT co-founder Nick Clark echoes this sentiment. “Treehouses are about escaping. They’re about a sense of nostalgia, and feeling young again.”
This extends to every design detail – Barry Sternlicht, the hotel group’s founder wanted these hotels to feel like “a kid had made them,” says Amber Addison, 93FT senior interior designer.
The team worked to strike a careful balance and meet health & safety standards
The challenge was to make this playful environment also be commercial, comfortable and meet health and safety standards, she explains.
And aesthetically, the team had to strike a balance between the designs looking not too ramshackle, but not too polished either.
The agency brought in a mishmash of vintage items from different sources including salvage company Retrouvious, plus reclaimed building materials and a variety of fabrics, to capture that spontaneity of children’s creativity.
Glass Onion created bespoke cushion covers for all 224 bedrooms, using denim off-cuts
For example, vintage clothing business, Glass Onion, which has a store in Sheffield, made cushion covers from denim off-cuts for each of the 224 bedrooms.
“A treehouse can be made of things that your mum doesn’t want in the lounge anymore,” Addison says.
Hence in the restaurant, Pip, there are eclectic lampshades, and one wall is filled with shelves of rainbow glass bottles of different shapes and sizes, which are intended to conjure up the intuitive collecting habits of children.
Meanwhile, the bedrooms are furnished with individually made patchwork quilts, asymmetrical door handles, handmade furniture and larch cladding.
Chalkboards lean into childhood nostalgia and creative freedom
In the entrance, a mix of reclaimed and handmade windows make up the lobby walls. And some of the chairs are made from tree stumps, with old tool handles embedded in them to form a back rest.
This sourcing came easily to 93FT, which brought in 1,400 items for its redesign of London’s Pilgrim Hotel.
Other playful elements include chalkboards, which guests are inviting to doodle on, or they can carve their name on small pieces of wood, which are then hung in the lift lobby as an alternative guestbook.
The agency initially came up with some strong ideas to bring the treehouse concept to life. “We loved the idea of a treehouse in a Treehouse,” Clark says. “We were going to cut some big shapes into the floorplates, and add a big tree with a treehouse at the top.”
Another idea was to have a big swing in the entrance, but neither of these ideas turned out to be feasible.
Existing columns are clad in timber, to give them a tree-like appearance
They were able to install a big artificial tree clad in real bark, which reaches up through the ceiling of the dark, lower-ground reception. Also on this level, the timber walkway is bathed in dappled light in reference to a forest floor. The effect was created by cutting out organic shapes in the ceiling and carefully placing lighting there.
A second tree made of reclaimed timber stands on the mezzanine with a bench at its base.
For phase two of the build, 93FT is designing a presidential suite, and Blacksheep in London is designing a rooftop bar.
In the UK, Manchester Treehouse follows on from Treehouse London in Marylebone designed by Birmingham agency Keane. It is also a transformation of an existing hotel, and that outpost has city-specific elements including Paddington Bear references and London-centric souvenirs.
Further Treehouse locations in the works include Brickell in Miami by Rockwell Group; Riyadh in Saudi Arabia by Blacksheep; and Adelaide in Australia by Woods Bagot.
The glass bottles are intended to conjure up the intuitive collecting habits of children
The bar area features an eclectic mix of light fittings, adding character and visual interest to the space
#93ft #designs #playful #new #treehouse
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