Described in such superlative terms as 'Design Wunderkind' (Vogue UK), 'design master' (Monocle) or 'Asian design sensation' (Conde Nast Traveler), Andre Fu is considered the go-to person for modern hospitality design. This Hong Kong architect and interior designer was only 30 years old when he set a new benchmark for hotel interiors with The Upper House. In a revolutionary design gesture, the Upper House eschews a grand lobby, bar, or luxury spa, to instead make space for the largest rooms in any Hong Kong hotel; indeed, some of the largest in the world. It is still considered a landmark design. For Fu, however, it was a logical answer to the question of what luxury means in one of the most cramped cities in the world. "The real luxury in an urbanized city like Hong Kong is space," he says. "Our scheme was the antithesis of what's been offered in Asia, especially Hong Kong, at the time." The rooms are double the size of what is typically offered – the smallest is 500 square feet – and half of the space of each room dedicated to the bathroom. "We thought bathing is an important ritual for hotel guests." Today this soft-spoken, boyish-looking man, still only in his mid-thirties, is considered a star of Asian architecture. He has recently been named the Designer of the Year by Maison&Objet Asia. However, there was a time when Fu thought he may build his career in Europe. Young Andre was sent to a boarding school in the UK at the age of 14, before studying architecture at Cambridge, and at one point thought he would never leave. "But after I graduated, there were opportunities in Asia, particularly in China. I flew here for one project, and one thing led to another. And then there were opportunities in Hong Kong that brought me back home." He is happy to be based in his hometown, where his family still lives. "It's close to my heart, and a city that has given me many, many opportunities," he says. "It's a fast-paced city with a very unconventional dynamic. To be a designer and architect here means to be able to really enjoy this dynamic city, the juxtaposition of cultures, the transience of people." His office, AFSO (Andre Fu StudiO), now works globally, designing hotels and restaurants across Asia, as well as in the UK and France: The Opus Suite in London (described by The Telegraph as "one of the most imposing hotel rooms in London"), The Clifford Pier restaurant in Fullerton Bay Hotel in Singapore (Andre Fu has managed "to transform an 81-year-old granny into a modern, classy lady with a very sexy vibe", wrote Majority Magazine), and Shangri-La Hotel in Istanbul, as well as a pop-up apartment for Louis Vuitton, and an installation for Swedish clothing brand COS, in Hong Kong. He has just finished two restaurants in Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Korea. The first is Kioku (Japanese for 'memories'), a dramatic double-storey space designed around the concept of a Modernist bamboo theatre. The other is Yu Yuan, a Chinese restaurant inspired by the historical rock gardens in Suzhou, China. With a thoroughly European education, Fu cites Gio Ponti, Mies van de Rohe, artists like Mark Rothko, as his influences, and Ponti's Parco dei principi in Sorrento as his all-time favorite hotel: "The tropical quality to it, the way it celebrates the Amalfi Coast, and that character, very specific to the 1950s/1960s." Straddling two worlds, he is eloquent when it comes to comparing the East and the West: "Because of the economic growth in the last 20 years, design in Asia has taken on an exponential growth – purely because of the opportunities to build. It is much more competitive, fostering of innovation, purely because of the speed of things. This is something the West could learn from the East." His concern remains to maintain a level of consideration when designing, to "find the luxury of time, focus on quality, and hopefully create a design with a degree of timelessness." This is something he feels the East could learn from the West: "Nobody really has the time to sit back and reflect, and consider design not as a commodity, but as someting that requires thought. In the West, the design vocabulary has been formulated by heritage, history of art. There is a degree of appreciation, thinking in a more considered manner, not rushing." His success, however, is based on more than just a Trans-Pacific understanding of taste. What sets him apart is attention to detail, and building a holistic experience of space through architecture, but also furniture, lighting, and design details, right down to the art on the walls. In conversation, it becomes apparent that Fu is passionate about designing for travel. "I've always been interested in the intangible, emotional quality of space, what it can physically instill," he says. "Designing hospitality spaces, in my view, presents probably the most obvious spatial experience of emotion, because it's very holistic. It's about walking into a space, and being submerged. From the moment you step out of the car and walk into the hotel.” "I enjoy the storytelling aspect of a space," he continues, drawing parallels to the way set design evokes emotioin in theatre. "Every time we do a project, we always want to tell a different story. It can be something that reflects on the sense of place where the project is located, or a specific vision that we want to bring to that particular venue. Some projects are calming, sensuous. Others are very theatrical." In The Upper House,“the smell, the uniforms, music, floors, textures, even the artwork, have been carefully commissioned, considered and curated, to be truthful to the story we are trying to tell – that of an urban oasis.” In the future, Fu says he would enjoy the opportunity to design performance spaces more: concert halls, theatre. However, his immediate plans are launching his own brand, Andre Fu Living. "We design a lot of furniture, lighting and objects for our hotels, and clients often ask if they could buy them – which they obviously couldn't, as they were bespoke designed for the project." This year, he decided it was time to create a platform, to translate his spatial designs into tangible objects for the home, working with fine artisans and craftsmen. “The first in the pipeline is an eau de toilette, a collaboration with Argentinian perfumier Fueguia 1833 Patagonia.” The excitement of the journey, it seems, is to continue to design a three-dimensional, tactile experience of luxury, that goes beyond the purely visual display of opulence."I always say that lifestyle is something that you cannot really enforce," he says. "As architects, we are creating environments for people to be in, which to me is more interesting than how something looks. That's what continues to inspire my career.”
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