Global Conversation

Architect Ben Adams has designed Nobu Hotel Shoreditch, the iconic restaurant’s first hotel in the UK’s capital city.

- Joanne Molina

“Businesses that run well are almost like marriages. Everything must be up for discussion or there will be real problems,” said Chef Nobu Matsuhisa.

So, when Nobu sought to open his brand’s first hotel in London, he sought someone who could capture the soul of the local area while maintaining his own principles and passion – and someone who could listen. The final selection: London’s own Ben Adams, who created a radiant contemporary tribute to Shoreditch’s industrial history – and a milestone in the history of the Nobu brand.

The hotel is a vibrantly choreographed mélange of glass, concrete, timber and bronze, and its homage to Asian design – including a deconstructed geometric pattern based on sumi-e, an ink painting technique central to East Asian art and philosophy – appears throughout.

This theme is paired with tributes to local industrial heritage, creating a breath-taking backdrop for its pocket garden, the private dining and event spaces, a luxury spa and wellness centre, and 148 rooms and suites featuring custom-made yukata robes and traditional Japanese tea sets. In addition, London-based WI International, represented in Dubai by Jalapeno Trading’s new hospitality division, provided the bespoke furniture to the lobby, restaurant, bar and rooms and appointed spaces with top brands, including Bancci, X8 and Parla.

“Nobu requires that all their buildings reflect their immediate context,” Adams explains. And it was his distinctive way of approaching his projects that made him a natural selection for Nobu’s first hotel, with other top projects including Graphite Square in Lambeth (a large building with more than 150 homes, workspace for 1000 people and a church) and Highland House, a family home in rural England shared by four generations of a Cypriot family and their guests.