Having spent nine years with one of the hotel industry's most important figures, Pierre-Yves Rochon, a man she describes to this day as her mentor, Rana Nasr ventured out on her own in 2010, establishing Blue Design Consultants in Beirut. Since then, she has won projects for the Hilton, Four Seasons and Méridien among others. In this interview, she gives us an early peek at her upcoming Six Senses La Sagesse resort in Grenada.
Can you tell us a little about the beginnings of your Beirut based design company?
[Rana Nasr] It all started with Pierre-Yves Rochon, my mentor, for whom I worked in Beirut and then Paris. He encouraged me to open an office to assist him locally, and I ended up doing that. Projects then followed, so my team has been working flat out and we have been unstoppable ever since.
You developed the Six Senses hotel in St. Kitts, then did the refurbishment of the Six Senses Zighy Bay in Oman, and now you've been recruited once again, this time to develop a resort for the Six Senses in Grenada. Is third time a charm?
Honestly, we love the Six Senses and are honoured to be working with them once again. For the first project, the operator’s specialist teams for design, food & beverage and spa flew in for a Bleu office workshop in December 2018.The exchange was intensely engaging, dynamic and ideas-driven. It was an unforgettable stimulating and challenging experience.
We worked 16-hour days, won a design competition to produce the best plans, and the rest, as they say, is history. We took on Oman after that and now La Sagesse in Grenada, which is set to open in 2022. It has been a treasured close-knit collaboration.
You're a small design company based in the Middle East – why do you think the Six Senses keeps choosing you?
Kamal Shehada of Range Developments, an award-winning developer of ultraluxury resorts, spotted us in Beirut, trusted his intuition and put Bleu forward for St. Kitts. An introduction to the Bangkok operator followed and then a recommendation for the Oman project. At the end of the day, we love what we do and are firm believers in our talent. Our enthusiasm, hard work and devotion coupled with being a boutique design company no doubt played a part. Our approach is to work hand in hand with our clients and envisage the project coming to life. We do it all wholeheartedly, with utmost conviction, as our clients mean the world to us.
What makes the location of Six Senses La Sagesse, Grenada stand out as a destination?
Six Senses is not only a holiday destination, it is a holistic approach to being. For example, their wellness programmes: 'Eat with Six Senses, Sleep with Six Senses' conditions us to approach life differently, stripped from materialistic objects, and shift perspective while working on ourselves. Of course, the vast spaces and natural distancing creates the perfect backdrop – there are only 100 guest rooms in the whole property, which maps out to nearly 115,000 square metres. There's also a collection of villas on the bluff adjoining the hotel; they're the most luxurious you'll find anywhere in the Caribbean. The villas and cottages are laid out using the natural topography of the site to create separation, complete privacy and views out to the blue Caribbean, lagoons and white sand beaches.
How did you come up with your overall design goal for Six Senses La Sagesse, Grenada?
Its design had to be contextual. Accentuating the materials, colours and natural simplicity of the island were all very important, as was the need to embrace the Six Senses DNA and deliver a complimentary caring design, while seamlessly integrating our unique touches. In terms of food & beverage, we design by food; and for the spa we brought the island's serenity inside to promote purity of wellness.
Reinvention of the hotel function with respect for local culture and traditions is a signature of Six Senses La Sagesse; how did you manage to integrate such thinking into your design?
Our team researched extensively to fully appreciate Grenada, its surroundings and the fabric that constitutes the nature of the island, and then they invited the outdoors in, in terms of interior design. We “lived it” and weaved in the design around the people, place, cultural richness – to tell the stories of pirates, cocoa, rum and apothecaries.
What type of materials did you use and why?
As I said, we strove to integrate the outdoor and indoor spaces and we used locally-made, or sometimes even raw, found materials like driftwood, bamboo poles and washed wood to bring the feel close to nature and sourced rattan, jute, and seagrass from the local market. Staying clear of marble, leather, and materials not loyal to the geographical context also played an instrumental part of our design thinking.
How will you manage to respect the new post-COVID-19 norms in terms of spacing?
The land is consciously underdeveloped with an approximate built-up ration of around 20 per cent, so privacy, social distancing when needed, is built into the DNA of the resort.
Such natural distancing, or avoiding big groups, runs through into the restaurants too, which have been oversized to allow separation. Also, whenever possible, air conditioning is avoided in public spaces so that the natural Caribbean winds keep the air fresh. And then there is the peace of mind you gain from having no communal corridors, limited usage of rugs and carpets, as the priority was given to local, natural, raw materials. Finally, touchless fixtures and ironmongery in communal areas were adopted with a priority on detailing and skirting to adopt a virus-sensitive approach.
Managing a project from so far away is not an easy feat, how did you overcome this challenge?
This is what we do! From Seychelles to Morocco, Tanzania, London, Paris, Egypt, UAE, KSA, Oman to Istanbul. We love the thrill and embrace the challenge each time eager to discover new worlds, embark on a new love affair to design and translate the story of the place, people and why clients should stay in that particular hotel.
What do you do when you feel the need to find inspiration?
We gather playfully and get seriously creative! Our driven and passionate team from diverse backgrounds spark vibrant design thinking. They're all exposed to different cultures as it is, and we encourage travels to exhibitions all over the world: Milan, Paris, Dubai to promote cultural exchanges to bring back fresh perspective and inspiration. We also created a weekly “inspirational design” brainstorming approach internally to share ideas and get buzzing! Finally, we welcome international suppliers to showcase new materials and design objects so we can stay ahead of the curve.
Finally, you are based in Lebanon – in 2020, how do you stay motivated and resilient when faced with such adversity?
Our quest is clear, it is about our team. We proudly reside in Beirut and glow to the world. We have worked passionately to establish ourselves on the international luxury scene by delivering uncompromising quality and continuously striving for more. Bleu’s approach is holistic, and our strength is our togetherness.
We stay united through thick and thin and strengthen each other when times are tough! In the aftermath of August 4th, our resilience has turned to sheer determination to show the world that we deliver quality, no matter what!
