Beauty and Taste

Irina and Olga, founders of the award-winning Sundukovy Sisters studio. Sundokovy Sisters, about their personal wellbeing and why they always wanted to design a bar for a bath.

As a rather young company you already accomplished worldwide recognized hospitality projects. What is the secret behind your success?

First we focus on the needs of the guest and rate the details of the briefing second. Thereby it is our personal challenge to create an “at-home-feeling”. We just call it “building-neighbourhood”. In a second step we combine the idea with the beauty of the location because finally the harmony of space and idea creates a strong feeling of wellbeing. And in the end, this is what a client is asking for. Sometimes this correlation is not that clear in the beginning (of the creative-process.) they say with a smile.

During your presentation on the Barcelona conference you mentioned how megatrends influence your design. How do they affect your daily work?

Just look at the desire of a human being to be part of a social group, or as we call it today, “community”. Having that in mind we develop our lobbies and public areas as spaces where people feel encouraged to get together. In line with the idea of the “Sharing Society” these spaces and their diverse functionalities offer the feeling of “togetherness”. Besides that, “multi-functional” interiors raise the variability of these spaces, where a library turns into a concert-room or a restaurant changes back into a library for a reading.

Quite often the bar takes a central role in your hospitality design. What is so special about bars?

Yes – We love bars (both agree and smile). It is the place where people literally meat each other, no matter if they knew each other before, have a date, or just got into a conversation. Bars are places where people just feel good, where they enjoy “togetherness” in a special atmosphere. Even the perception of the barkeeper might transform from a servant into the one of a host.

Besides his public life every guest is a private person, who wants to withdraw from daily life in order to find some rest and recreation. How does it effect your design? 

There are various phases in the daily routine of a human being. We consider especially the guestroom to be the space of contemplation that should express the feeling of luxurious generosity. In the sense of an open space we tend to create one room by weaving the sections of bath and bed. This wide space of personal luxury delivers an extraordinary “wellbeing-feeling” to the guest. Affected by an, in a positive way “self-centered” egoism, he might begin to care about himself and, maybe, takes a long relaxing bath.

So, the bathroom turns more and more into a private wellbeing-zone. But where do you feel comfortable?

...where we are “with” us. Even though we love the inspiring world of design, it is so wonderful to feel the quiet moment of a relaxing bath, ideally in an atmosphere of beauty and taste.