东门酒店

MERCURE EASTGATE HOTEL

项目地点：英国，The High Street Oxford OXI 4BE 面积：5000m2 设计：Blacksheep Interior Architecture & Design

LOCATION: The High Street Oxford OX1 4BE, UK AREA: 5000m2 DESIGN: Blacksheep Interior Architecture & Design

Blacksheep为新餐厅命名并负责其品牌标志和平面设计工作，此外，还为新酒吧设计图标，灵感来自于牛津文学校友。品牌标志设计包括内外部标志、菜单、火柴盒、名片和其他文具及销售兑换品。

东门酒店原是Macdonald Hotels 24家店之一，后被开发商Moorfield收购，并由Mercure特许经营。为了加强管理，Mercure携手Warwick Avenue共同运作该酒店以及集团其他酒店，以确保这些酒店能达到Mercure制定的4星级中高端品牌的标准，即这些酒店都必须具有独特而与众不同的风格，并同时符合国际酒店品牌的各项规定。Blacksheep被指定负责这个酒店的改造设计及其他相关问题的处理，目的是使3星级的东门酒店改造后能升级为4星级。

东门酒店地处17至18世纪著名的Crosse Sword客栈的位置，大约1840年，被改建成Flying Horse客栈。1899年后才由EP Warren建造成东门酒店，用来连接周围几幢彼此分离的建筑。目前东门酒店的具体位置是在牛津高街（‘The High'）和默顿街的交接处，因此获益颇多，但也仅仅有一块小空地，一座小型的典型校园酒吧和餐厅，后面有个接待区，可从侧门进入。由于其建造是为了连接周围的建筑群，这个空间也面临了很多诸如室内建筑风格的不连贯等问题。

新的一层平面的设计理念是合理化利用空间，以使客人很容易地从一个空间进入到下一个空间，并且能更有效地协调白天和夜晚的不同功能。设计简报是为了吸引更多顾客的到访，并希望增加他们驻留的时间，不管是简单逗留或是住店客人，同时还希望吸引更多眼尖的本地人经常来消费娱乐。

厨房保留在原来的位置，新的公共空间围绕厨房依次展开，并用数学模数法来提高空间的利用，包括安装一个新的残疾人专用电梯。设计公司的核心理念就是转移周围空间，这样餐厅就被定位在酒店前部分，连接着新酒吧、休息室和接待区。

外部的细节工程也在进行，包括外部照明、标志和菜目灯箱。

酒店的接待区被重新设计，以增加聚焦点和人流循环，并移除一个原来连接前面餐厅的通道门，从而营造一种更加大堂的空旷感觉。原有的接待处，（位于主入口处的左侧，不是很好用，与酒店的风格不协调）被移到入口的右侧，与对面一个大型的砂岩壁炉形成了令人舒适的对称空间。定制的办公桌是用黑漆木制成，有精细的金纸包边，前面有锤纹。办公桌后面是一面新的整墙橱柜，也用黑色木材制成，青铜制作的面板镶嵌镜子，用于储藏所有打印机和相关产品。高度略低的办公桌体现了一种与其他酒店标准接待台不一样的非正式的优越感。还有一个特别之处是灯光长长的影子散落在整个办公桌上，右侧的墙则采用介绍文学协会的特殊书法壁纸，并延伸到酒吧区的天花装饰上。

一个引人注目的紫色丝绒圆形座椅放置在大厅中间，形成一个焦点，让客人能够面对壁炉或面向入口和办公桌。招待区的色调采用紫红色、奶油色，木地板的铺设显得很温馨。

利用原有餐厅空间的一半创建一个新休息室和大堂区，另一半作为一个专用的酒吧空间使用。这些区域之间的边界根据白天和黑夜的不同功能可以相应调整。为缓解空间的过渡，从招待区到酒吧都采用一样的木地板。

空间上、下两层通过一个数字升降机以及一个斜体衔接的，而厕所入口也进行了重新设计。

Designers Blacksheep have now completed the transformation of the entire ground floor of The Mercure Eastgate Hotel in Oxford for client Mercure Hotels , Accor's upper-mid-market hotel brand. The project-which encompassed a new 90-cover restaurant (with private dining area), bar, lobby, lounge and toilet areas-necessitated a complete redesign of the ground floor footplate to optimise key revenue-generating areas for the client and completely refresh the hotel's offer for guests.

Blacksheep also named and did all the branding and graphics work for the new restaurant The High Table, alluding to the grand dining hall traditions of the Oxford Colleges, as well as graphics work for the new bar, which takes inspiration from Oxford's literary alumni. The branding work encompassed all external and internal signage, menus, matchboxes, business cards and other stationary and marketing collateral.

The Eastgate Hotel was formerly one of 24 Macdonald Hotels, which were purchased by developers Moorfield, with the operational franchise taken up by Mercure. Mercure then took on Warwick Avenue to project manage the upgrade of this and other hotels in the group to ensure the hotels fit firmly within the Mercure brand's upper mid-market 4 star profile, which sees every hotel as unique and with its own character, but backed by the quality standards that come with an international hotel brand. Blacksheep were appointed to create the new designs for the hotel and are also actively looking at others of the newly-purchased stock. The aim for the 3-star Mercure Eastgate Hotel is for it to achieve a 4-star listing following all works.

An inn known as the Crosse Sword had been on the Eastgate site from the 17th to 18th centuries, followed by The Flying Horse inn, built around 1840. The Eastgate Hotel was first established in 1899, built by EP Warren and uniting several disparate buildings. The existing Eastgate Hotel benefited from a strong location on the corner of Oxford High Street ('The High') and Merton Street, but had only a small frontage with a typical student-type bar and restaurant and reception area behind, accessed by a side entrance. It had been made up of a series of knocked-through buildings and brought with it concomitant problems of level changes and disjointed interior architecture.

The idea for the new ground floor plan was to rationalise the spaces so that the scheme flowed easily from one space to the next, with easy and effective change from day to night-time use. The brief was to enhance the customer journey and seek to increase the dwell time of both casual and hotel guest users, as well as look to attract more discerning local guests to use the restaurant and bar facilities more frequently.

The kitchen was to stay in its existing location and the new public spaces had to work around this. There was also the opportunity to upgrade the space in accordance with DDA regulations, including the installation of a new disabled lift. Blacksheep's key decision was to switch the spaces around so that the restaurant was located at the front of the hotel, linking in to the new bar, lounge and reception area.

Small exterior works were also carried out, including new external lighting and signage and a new menu box.

The reception area of the hotel was reconfigured to create improved focal points and circulation, removing a through-door into the former restaurant space to create a more open, lobby feel. The existing reception desk, (to the left of the main entrance, was not very user-friendly and didn't set the correct tone for the hotel and its new aspirations - remove sentence) was moved to the right of the entrance, a more pleasing symmetry was created by its position opposite a large existing sandstone fireplace. The bespoke-designed desk is in black-stained timber with a very hard-wearing gold paper with a hammered finish at the front. New floor-to-ceiling cupboards behind the desk, in dark-stained timber with mirrored insert panels covered in bronze film, are used to store all printers and associated products. A greater sense of informality is given by the lower height of the desk, now at seated height, rather than being at standard hotel reception height. A special new feature light-shade in cream runs above the whole length of the desk and a feature wall to the right of the reception uses special calligraphy wallpaper, introducing the literary association, which is expanded upon in the bar area.

An eye-catching circular seat in purple velvet in the centre of the lobby space gives it a focus, with guests able to face the fireplace or people-watch the entrance and desk area. Colours in the reception space were warmed up, using the palette of aubergine, purple and cream throughout, with a timber floor. Blacksheep then created a new lounge and lobby area from half of the existing restaurant space, with the other half used as a dedicated bar. The boundaries between these sections can move between day and night-time usage. The ease of the transition between the spaces is underlined through the use of timber flooring throughout, from the reception right through to the bar.

Two level changes in the space were dealt with via a DDA-conforming lift and ramp, whilst the toilets were also reconfigured with new entrances.