Project Team

interior design: DBI Design
lighting design: Point of View

Suppliers

music: Nightlife
carpet: Feltex, Brintons, Designer Rugs
lighting: Space Furniture, Dedece
furniture: Space Furniture, Nottage Design, Classic Chairs, Bindi Furniture

Sydney epitomises Australia’s exuberant spirit, with a vibrant cityscape and iconic architecture. It is a world class metropolis. Sydney is driven by a potent cultural mix with a free thinking style which makes it a prefect backdrop for innovative world class building project.

As designers DBI Design have been presented with a unique opportunity and a progressive architectural form in which to craft their interiors.

The Darling Hotel is a boutique offering. Personalised, bespoke, comfortable it is innovative and indulgent. The hotel is light hearted and looks to address the business and leisure travellers, who are location oriented and trend away from faceless chain hotels.

Guestrooms
The guestrooms at the Darling Hotel are inviting and cosmopolitan. Thoughtfully planned and well appointed, they offer every comfort and also add to the guest experience through playful elements unique to the property. The palette is warm and refined comprising of natural materials of figured stones and timbers contrasted with custom etched glass and bespoke carpets. The mix is bold and captivating designed to remain relevant amongst fleeting trends. At Darling Hotel, the guest will experience a one of a kind mix of a world class entertainment precinct, relaxed urban culture, contemporary design all overlooking the spectacular Sydney skyline.

Bespoke artwork by Sydney now NYC resident artist Russell James grace the walls infusing the rooms with colour and nature inspired tranquillity. The hotel offers a boutique, personalised experience with thoughtfully planned, well appointed rooms which feature luxurious bathrooms, quality finishes which are tasteful, captivating bold and indulgent.

Carpet

High quality custom woven Axminster carpet made from 80% wool and 20% nylon fibres, and has a very luxurious finish and feel which matches the hotel’s retreat experience. The elegant carpet is a custom design put together by Feltex’s PD team especially for the hotel. It features neutral tones of greys and browns, with a hint of The Darling’s signature plum.

Feltex

carpet


Suites
The hotel suites are a study of sophistication and style. Inspired by the European drawing rooms the suites blur the line of art and space with compartments that split and combine intuitively according to
our guests wishes.

A palette of tailored dusty hues on a base of luxurious natural timbers are matched with bespoke carpets and hand made glass mosaics. Every material is thoughtfully crafted to best present it to the guest.
Artwork plays an integral role in the living and sleeping spaces.
Specially commissioned for The Darling, it is stylistically editorial – a journey through Sydney, revealing secrets to the guests otherwise undiscovered on the tourist trail.

Executive suites
Positioned on the premium apex of the building the executive suites make the most of the dramatic building envelope. Leaving the views uninterrupted by keeping all solid elements away from the glazing, the design centers around the core of the spaces to offer expansive functional amenities of bar, workstation and entertainment elements.
Whilst the living space offers generous entertainment spaces, the bedroom is a retreat with a reflection corner where guests gaze out to the stunning urban landscape before them. The adjacent ensuite zone features a glass bathing cube on the edge of the building, furnished with a free standing spa.

Spa
The extensive spa is a study of minimalism and escapist with a distinctive urban overtone. Disciplined in it’s planning, it takes an aesthetic approach exuding a sense of calm and quiet. A restrained palette of tones was used to soothe and invigorate the visitor with lighting beacons creating subtle focal points. Combining the elements of metal, earth and wood it is balanced, the spaces are strong and soothing. The spa features a hamam as it’s signature experience, for guests in additional to the treatments offered.

Hotel Lobby
The Darling Hotel lobby is an outstanding space, architecturally inherently grand and therefore exciting.

Transparent atrium volumes merge with richly toned and detailed lounge spaces to create an elegant, welcoming entry in keeping with the pure architectural language. The public spaces look to combine concepts from art hotel hotels around the world with unique Sydney urban setting, showcasing emerging art, fashion in combination with Pyrmont’s and the sites history. DBI Design’s aim is to make the spaces engaging and memorable, with a mix of eclectic design
pieces, innovative use of technology, welcoming and open space planning, zones for relaxation and interaction, avant-garde art collections and spectacular architectural forms.”

MaxaltoFebo Chair

Maxalto Febo designed by Antionio Citterio in 2008. Upholstery: Fabric or leather

Space Furniture



DBI Design’s intent is to captivate the guest from arrival by creating a rich and memorable journey which is tailored to their needs, and surpasses expectations.

Lighting
The spa and five star hotel in Sydney’s new The Star casino complex is an exercise in subtle, sensitive lighting design.

Interior designers DBI and lighting designers PointOfView have worked together on a spa and the new five star Darling Hotel at The Star casino complex, creating a series of ambient and atmospheric spaces.

The PointOfView team, led by Design Director Mark Elliott, were careful to integrate the lighting within the fabric of the space so that it enhanced rather than dominated the interior.

In the spa, light was kept minimal, applied judiciously to surfaces and sculptures for a subdued effect.

“This approach is typical to the way we work,” says Elliott. “The best lit space for me is when you walk in and know that it feels right but you’re not immediately sure why. This means that we have done our job!”

The hotel lobby, with its triple height glass roofed section, proved trickier to light. Chandeliers from Luce Plan add drama; the rest of the lighting is from a low level, in the way of floor lamps and integrated joinery lighting.

“It is crucial in such a voluminous hospitality space to bring lighting down to a human level so that the patrons don’t feel exposed and arecomfortable in the environment,” Elliott explains.

Sandstone walls are dramatically uplift with linear LED inground fittings; a deep red wall is made even deeper with red LEDs.

Music
As part of the work Nightlife Music has done with the newly revamped Star, Phil Brown and Ben Wighton of Nightlife, consulted with senior stakeholders across the Star operation to deliver a solution that would complete the experience they wanted for their guests in the impressive lobby area.

The brief: To create an inviting environment that was like a lot of the great hotel lobbies around the world – where people don’t just use it like a transit space but are happy to hang out for an afternoon or use it as a destination place to meet up. It was critical that the music be a feature in creating this atmosphere and compliment the type of customer they were trying to attract. The results: A mix of content that is more eclectic and diverse than what you would expect to hear in a 5 star hotel lobby – but still keeping in sync with the overall vision that the Star team wanted to deliver.


Designer Rugs at The Darling

The Darling Hotel at The Star, designed by DBI Design, features the ‘Haru’ rug by Akira Isogawa for Designer Rugs.

According to DBI Design, the Darling Hotel presented an irresistible mix of an urban design hotel with an aim to infuse guests with a sense of Sydney’s personality through the fields of art, fashion and design.

The entry lobby is the guest’s first introduction to the hotel and their task was to create a welcoming space which whilst architecturally monumental in scale, is warm, inviting and has a sense of fun and occasion. The Designer Rugs, Akira Isogawa rugs fill the lobby with colour; the artwork to DBI spoke volumes of Sydney’s potent cultural mix and free thinking spirit, whilst adding art and richness to the lobby lounge settings.

Designer Rugs played an integral part in customising the scale and colour.

Photo: Anna Goh (Executive Interior Designer, DBI Design), Erin Shaw ( Interior Designer, DBI Design) and Akira Isogawa.

Designer Rugs