UP AND AWAY

New London hotel The Emory presents the perfect showcase of RSHP's signature functionalist style and hospitality group Maybourne's elevated luxury

- ELLIE STATHAKI

RSHP's first encounter with luxury hotel group Maybourne happened 20 years ago, when the acclaimed architecture studio was approached to work with it on a new entrance for The Berkeley. It resulted in the sleek canopy, made of a series of 16 carbon fibre beams, that elegantly adorn its periodinspired façade to this day. Just next to it is The Emory, 'London's first all-suite hotel', which opened in Belgravia in April and is the latest and largest - product in the long, fruitful relationship that ensued.

RSHP partner Ivan Harbour was a key force in the project from day one, alongside the legendary practice co-founder Richard Rogers, who remained involved until his death in 2021. The Emory's location is in one of central London's most highly soughtafter corners, and naturally it influenced the project's design development. 'The Emory is part of a family of projects that we created around The Berkeley so, in that context, we were aiming to create something very clear on a site that is very dense and already fully occupied,' says Harbour.

'It had to be something that could be constructed as much as possible off-site, and so it had to have a level of rational thinking in the way it was organised. It was about making strong, rational decisions that would inform the construction process. What we created only exists because of the project's pragmatic constraints.' If in doubt about the project's high level of precise engineering and function-led design, a look at the main façade will convince you otherwise. The Emory stands proudly overlooking Hyde Park, its captivating network of steel outriggers peeking out from its rooftop-like masts, their slim steel rods running down the clean, functionalist façade, helping to define a neat grid of openings for the suites behind it.