Blacksheep strikes balance between business and leisure at Novotel
The brief given to Blacksheep by Novotel’s Accor parent brand, was to help increase the usage of and revenue generation from the hotel’s public spaces, as well as creating a truer embodiment of the brand’s core values: ‘contemporary hotels as comfortable for business as for leisure’.
The new ground floor is comprised of a large, light and airy reception with seating areas, circulation core and internet station space. A large bar area to the left of front reception segues seamlessly into the restaurant space, with an additional private dining area, which can also be used as a business meeting space, with informal business ‘breakout’ seating around it.
The dining offer is made up of a total of 198 covers, spread through the restaurant, bar, private dining and breakout spaces with 127 covers in the dedicated restaurant space.
“The new design sought to create a sense of flow between the different spaces on the ground floor and add in pockets of interest in the form of smaller, punctuating spaces,” explains Blacksheep Director Jo Sampson. “The colour palette for the scheme was light with punches of colour, including ice blue and burnt orange, offset by dramatic black or white monochrome tile flooring.”
Blacksheep bespoke-designed most of the furniture within the scheme, including booth seating in the restaurant, the waiter stations and restaurant tables, as well as the servery unit and buffet areas.
