Aviator

With its bedroom wings stretching out like those of a jumbo jet, and its sleek contours inspired by the shape of a propellor, Ken McCulloch’s latest hotel is a striking architectural statement, and one that reflects its aeronautical location.

Farnborough Airport occupies a special place in the history of aviation. In October 1908, Samuel Cody made the first powered flight in Britain from here. During the Second World War, it provided a home to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, a research facility which pioneered many aeronautical innovations. Many of the aircraft invented as a result of those innovations – amongst them such iconic aircraft as the Spitfire, the Harrier Jump Jet and Concorde – were developed and tested at Farnborough.

Although the RAE, since renamed the Defense Research Agency, has relocated to Boscombe Down, Farnborough is still home to the British National Space Centre and defense research continues on the adjacent Cody Technology Park.

Today, Farnborough is most readily identified with the biennial airshow which takes place in its grounds, and the airport, under new owners TAG Aviation, has established itself as one of Europe’s main hubs for private aviation. Cessnas, Gulfstreams and Learjets  now populate the skies where Cody first stuttered into flight and Concorde smashed the sound barrier.

TAG has invested heavily in Farnbrough, most notably with the construction of an award-winning new terminal designed by Reid Architecture and Buro Happold in 2006. The next phase in their development of the airport and its surrounding land has seen the arrival of Aviator on the site of a former RAF Officers Mess, just a stone’s throw from the runway. The hotel has been created, and is managed under contract, by Ken McCulloch’s Unique Hotels. Architect Robin Partington of Hamiltons was responsible for the building’s striking external appearance, and the internal spatial organisation, with Amanda Rosa handling the interior design.

The proximity of the airport imposed restrictions on the height of the building, and the site is sandwiched by the runway on one side and a main road on the other, giving Hamiltons a tight, narrow footprint to work within. Their elegant solution has been to create a fluid, elongated building based on the contours of a propellor. The gently undulating fascia is striated with metallic strips and louvred windows above its solid black base. With no basement or rooftop space to accommodate the plantworks, the M&E services bookend the narrow sides of the building, whilst the rear elevation overlooks the runway, giving guests a panoramic view of the private jets as they take off and land.

The curves of the exterior are continued within the building, where the first sight to greet visitors as they enter is a stunning central stairwell, creating a light-filled rotunda, within which a curved staircase, reminiscent of a 1930s ocean liner, sweeps up to the reception area on the first floor. From this central point, continuous spaces flow into one another, spanning out like the blades of a propeller from its shaft.
Nicholas Rettie – erstwhile launch manager of such seminal London hotels as The Halkin, The Metropolitan and The Great Eastern – has acted as Project Director for Aviator, having been approached by Ken McCulloch following his departure from The Great Eastern to ensure the hotel was up and running in time for the Farnborough Airshow in July.

Comparisons have been made between the atrium stairwell here and The Guggenheim Museum in New York but Rettie is the first to acknowledge its closer-to-home similarities with the much photographed rotunda at The Great Eastern.  

The interiors throughout the hotel are by Ken McCulloch’s wife Amanda Rosa, whose scheme reflects the subtle curves and restrained elegance of the exterior. “The design scheme is very aerodynamic,” says Rosa. “With soft flowing lines, no sharp corners, with the focus on the view. Softness, movement and pattern all come from the shape of the building.”

The lobby has taupe stone flooring, with milk chocolate polished plaster walls and Black American Walnut clad lifts. Behind the stairwell, a glass encased fireplace is set into the wall, giving views through to the brasserie.

As well as the airport, Aviator is targeting custom from the surrounding business parks, where companies such as British Aerospace, Nokia and Sun Microsystems have offices. To this end there is a deli to draw in lunchtime trade, where Rosa has combined industrial influences such as exposed overhead ducting and brickwork walls with rustic features including wooden floors, a long communal table, grey and white wood fittings and blackboards on the walls.

There are also extensive meeting facilities with seven rooms offering natural daylight and airside views through their slatted wooden blinds. Images from early 20th century issues of Flight Magazine adorn the walls. 

As with all of McCulloch’s previous hotels – One Devonshire Gardens, Malmaison, Columbus and Dakota – the Brasserie and Bar areas are the “heart and soul” of the hotel. In the brasserie, the interiors are clean and restrained, with parquet floors and cream leather chairs. The large space is divided by seating bays and columns clad in Black American Walnut. Recess lighting and table lamps create a soft glow, giving the space intimacy. Black and white photos of Hollywood stars embarking and disembarking from aeroplanes offer a reminder of the surroundings.

The Skybar sits above the Brasserie, offering further stunning views of the airport. There are black leather club chairs, and sofas upholstered in a grey flannel by Andrew Martin, with a fine purple line that shimmers in the light. Light filters through the timber-slatted blinds and seating bays are broken up by sheers.

The 169 bedrooms and suites are ranged over the first, second and third floors, including 19 ‘Sky Studios’ – 56 m2 spaces offering floor-to-ceiling windows and exclusive use of the fourth floor Skylounge. A further twelve Aviator Plus Rooms of 35m2 are located on the second and third floors.

The look of the bedrooms is classic Amanda Rosa –  smooth and clean, yet rich and comfortable. Burgundy and turquoise are the main colour accents. The rooms have leather window seats and desks, facing outwards. Bathrooms are subtle, with black glass walls, black granite vanity tops and taupe walls.

The icing on the cake is the Sky Lounge, a private space for guests of the Sky Studio suites on the 4th floor. Here, Rosa has used old aviator cases, tripod lamps and chrome model aeroplanes and globes.

“The design is not a cliché,” says Rosa. “It’s not deliberately aviation themed or contrived. It flows well, from space to space, there is a good progression, nothing jumps out at you. The aim was to create the best hotel we possibly could and quality was the key to the project,” concludes Amanda Rosa.

Originally, this was planned as a Dakota hotel, in keeping with the branding of McCulloch’s last three hotels. However, the lucrative nature of its location, and the £195+ starting rates, have led to a new marque being created, positioned somewhere between McCulloch’s five-star Columbus in Monaco and the £99-a-night Dakotas. Yet whatever level of the market they are pitched at, all of McCulloch’s hotels offer their guests a similar combination of savvy marketing, sexy interiors and superb food and drink. After all, it’s a formula that has worked, in various guises, for over a fifteen years – why change it? 

Aviator Hotel
Farnborough Road
Farnborough Hampshire
GU14 6EL
Tel: 0870 220 8000
www.aviatorfarnborough.co.uk

Rooms:    169 guestrooms inc. 19 Sky Suites
Food:    Aviator Brasserie & Deli
Drink:    Skybar
Leisure:    Residents’ Gym
Facilities:    Seven Meeting Rooms, Boardroom, Skylounge

Words: Matt Turner

Photography courtesy of Aviator