Architect and designer Justin Wells has launched his own hospitality design company, Wells International.

Based in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the practice comprises a team of over 30 architects, designers, industry consultants and hospitality specialists, with members located around the world from London and Lyon to Bangkok and Dubai. The company is entirely focused on hospitality projects, with four areas of expertise – hotel design, F&B design, spa and wellness, and boutique collections.

“Our role as designers is to be transformative and to allow people to be moved,” says Wells, who believes that this unprecedented period of global uncertainty presents an opportunity for the hospitality industry to reimagine how it engages with the design process. “We want our clients to be emotionally captivated, and for the design process to be thrilling, satisfying and wonderfully consuming. Creating memorable experiences is our mantra, and our vision is to be bold, brave and, above all, different. We design stories.”

A bespoke approach

With currently hospitality projects in Saudi Arabia, Croatia and Vietnam, Wells International sees the post-pandemic world as an chance to redefine the way hotels are designed at a global scale in order to respond quickly and in a highly targeted way to specific demands. Its global experts are able to come together from around the world to form bespoke teams built specifically for each project.

“A bespoke approach is tailored to a client’s needs, desires and budget – at Wells International, we believe project teams should be tailored in the same way,” Wells continues. “These agile and experienced teams combined with our thoughtful, emotionally rich approach to design will be essential in the race for industry recovery in hospitality. With this approach, our clients will get the best in industry working on their project, with greater access to materials, supply chains, and reimagined design thinking.”

Design as theatre

Wells International also looks to create spaces that engage people from the moment of arrival, in the same way that an audience is captivated by theatre. For each project, a “script” is crafted through immersive research that delivers an in-depth understanding of the setting and what will drive the narrative. The team then assembles a material palette and begins to develop an approach to creating the spaces and defining the “scene”; and considers how people will populate the space, both as “actors” and “audience”.

“Wells International designs for people – we believe they deserve to be excited in experiencing hospitality spaces in the same way that theatre thrills and excites,” says Wells. “We create emotive spaces that allow an audience to escape everyday life and come away with a deeply personal and memorable experience.”