Project Team
client: AHL
interior design: Nic Graham (G+A)
lighting design: PointOfView
Photography: Brent Winstone
Suppliers
furniture: Mark Tuckey, Home Furnishings on Consignment, James Richardson, Tait, Stylecraft, Boyd Blue
lighting: Euroluce, Masson for Light
fabric: Spence and Lyda
carpet: Whitecliffe Imports
The Gold Coast International has been reborn into QT Hotel, the first designer hotel in the QT Hotel range launching Australia wide. QT is a vibrant, designer hotel unlike anything Surfer’s Paradise has seen before. Born from the desire to mix indulgence and innovation, the hotel features unexpected and untraditional custom designed details reflecting an irreverent and quirky style that invokes old world 50’s glamour coupled with the unique Gold Coast spirit.
After years of preparation and six months of extensive renovations, the refurbishment of The GCI is a bold move by owners AHL (Amalgamated Holdings Limited) to unveil the entirely new QT Hotel brand within Australia. As the first in the new QT Hotel range, QT Gold Coast has been created to inspire conversation and introduce the new standard in service and unparalleled interior decoration.
The architecturally redesigned lobby boasts slick interior design, rich floor to ceiling wood paneling, artist crafted feature walls and custom lighting for mood as well as function, setting the stage for a memorable and inspiring stay.
QT Gold Coast also houses three hot new venues that cater to all aspects of the Surfer’s Paradise scene; Stingray Lounge, Bazaar and Fixx.
Interior designers Nic Graham + Associates needed to create an eye-catching design that captured the vibrancy and fun of its surrounds.
The brief was developed together with AHL as the first of many of the new QT ‘design hotel’ products. F+B was a major focus. A buzzing Lobby, busy cool Bar and a relaxed market style restaurant were required. AHL have well rehearsed their brief with the other hotels and cinemas in their folio.
The result is “a mix of nostalgic surfer chic combined with Miami catwalk cool,” said Nic Graham.
For Nic, the greatest unique features of the site were great natural light and the grand 1980-s footprint. However, working in a building that hadn’t been touched since the 1980s meant a substantial amount of the budget was absorbed by services.
The space was programmed and planned so that the F+B spaces flow from the lobby to bar and restaurant as the client wanted that open mix. On a busy night the spaces are seamless and people move freely through the lobby with a drink in their hand.
“We were deliberately being bold with graphics, pattern and popping colour on the ground floor,” commented Nic Graham. “The restaurant is more subdued and warm. The market shelves and serving stations were merchandised by us as well. We sourced all the international food items as part of our service. The hotel’s stylist then maintains the original forms.
One of Nic’s favourite features are the wire chairs that he imported from Mexico and the wall of hand printed discs in the café.
Nic Graham + Associates are now working on two other QT properties for them: one in Sydney’s CBD and another in Port Douglas.
PointOfView designed and supplied the lighting, the focus of which was to integrate and reinforce G+A’s interior design and direction.
The reception is welcoming open space; interior design features glow and accent lighting is integrated into a simple slot. The dramatic reception desk is a feature element in its own right. Illuminated from within the graphic face radiates light whilst the timber panelling behind is washed to provide a soft and warm backdrop. Feature pendants flank the reception column as balance, and add depth to the space.
G+A’s vibrant design to the ‘Fixx’ area (open lounge) is reinforced by highlighting the built-in joinery and focussing pools of lights over clusters of seating, harmonised with floor standards in the waiting area. A random array of coloured pendants adds a mischievous touch linking the various sections of this “meeting place”.
The sunken lounge, named ‘The Lawn’, is lit to a low level with attention drawn to the illuminated graphic ceiling. Continuous linear lighting at low level is designed to create a seductive atmosphere. The ‘Lawn’ is defined with a series of exaggerated tubular down lights which have a physical presence in the room, and provide distinct pools of light over the long table.
Achieving the right ambience in a bar lounge is essential to the venue identity and social proposition of the bar. At the ‘Stingray Lounge’ the objective was to produce a stylish space for both Surfer Paradise locals and hotel guests. The interior design has an elegant raw approach, and lighting is applied judiciously to create a space of high contrast to give a theatrical atmosphere.
The core to the space is the bar itself. Lighting accentuates the strong graphic of the bar front. The drinks are part of the interior stylisation, and are emphasised by concealed LED strips with discrete spot lights above. Long cantilevered light shades feature at the wall seating, adding colour and texture to the volume.
The Bazaar restaurant features an open kitchen designed with the notion of a ‘market place’. The food preparation area is the ‘hero’ of the space. Lighting is integrated with the fabric and form of the restaurant, designed to visually join the various activities, features, details and colours of the space.
Adjacent, the display table is lit with discreet recessed down lights whilst linear LED lighting integrated into the joinery to illuminate the San Pellegrino bottles above, vegetable displays and plates below.
Within the open dining area, selected suspended boxes are internally illuminated to create a random texture to the ceiling plane, whilst a series of spotlights are placed in between these interior design features to ensure that each dining table is accented. Narrow streaks of light ‘slash’ the perimeter screens, to give a cyclorama to the room. Colour is exploited with the use of decorative contemporary pendants within key areas of the restaurant.