Hospitality Architects and Interior Designers

HFS recommended Hospitality Architects and Interior Designers listed in alphabetical order

At HFS we understand the importance of engaging the right style of hospitality architect or designer for your hospitality project. The design of your Café, Restaurant, Bar, Hotel, Takeaway food store or any other style of hospitality offering is effectively the blueprint for accurate or inaccurate quoting and forms the basis for a successful or unsuccessful fitout depending on the level of detail provided.

Some of the biggest mistakes we see clients make when choosing their Hospitality Architect or Interior Designer are listed below:

Inexperienced Architect or Designer

The hospitality industry is a compliance heavy industry and with so many different forms of compliance influencing the requirements for any hospitality operator it is a minefield if you mess this element of your project up. Often when clients are looking around for design quotes they will come across an architect or designer that has residential or commercial experience but very limited or no hospitality experience. These Architects and Designers will often assure you that hospitality design is not that much different and that they are able to complete your design works to a satisfactory level. In our experience this is often not the case as there are numerous elements to hospitality design that are not only unique to the industry but are also very technical and compliance heavy and getting these components wrong or not documenting them accurately can cause major headaches and expense. A lot of the time inexperienced architects or designers will not clearly understand the required work and service flows specific to the hospitality industry. They also often have very little detail in their documentation for the hospitality unique compliance components e.g. hoods and ventilation systems, grease traps, floor slip ratings, floor waste requirements, hand basin requirements etc. so it is very easy for shopfitters to cut corners when quoting, some shopfitters even allow for non-compliant components in their pricing just so that they can be the cheapest quote and win the project.

Insufficient detail in documentation

When your documentation is not specific enough then often you will find that there are vast differences in your shop fitting quotes as some shopfitters will quote low and deliberately keep out pricing and details that the Architect/Designer have missed out whereas the diligent and professional shopfitter will pick up these issues and communicate them and allow for these missing details in their quote. You can easily get hit with a lot of variations on the job, if you accept the cheapest quote, as the lack of detail or missed compliance components can added unexpected expenses.We coined a phrase “false economy”, when you save money on the design of your project, but the lack of detail costs you a lot of time, money and headaches in the end if your outlet has not been designed effectively!

Workflow and service flow issues

The design stage is where you consider all your requirements and you get the designer to allow for them accordingly. If the design does not incorporate the correct requirements for your style of hospitality outlet, then you and your staff will be tearing your hair out once you are trading. It is difficult and expensive to resolve issues in your layout once everything is constructed. Poor work flow, service flow and insufficient space or allocation for key components is a major problem that can arise when you choose an inexperienced Architect or Designer.

Compliance issues due to lack of experience

The reality is that the compliance for hospitality is stringent because there are a lot of elements of the industry where things can go horribly wrong e.g. food poisoning, customer accidents from wrong slip rating on floor finishes, fires from incorrect gauge ventilation ducting or insufficient cleaning of ducting, electrocution from non-compliant electrical work, neighbours complaining to Council about smells due to non-compliant ventilation works etc. It is not worth the risk of engaging an inexperienced architect or designer as the pitfalls can add unnecessary complications and cost to your fitout process.

Choosing your architect or designer because they are the cheapest? Good idea or not?

Do you buy the cheapest car, cheapest clothes, cheapest food, cheapest appliances? You get what you pay for when it comes to most things and your hospitality design is no different. The “Devil is in the Detail!” is a beautifully accurate saying for the difference between a professional and competent hospitality architect or designer and a lower cost and minimal detail styled architect or designer. There can be a huge difference between quotes for the design of your hospitality site depending on how much time and details each designer allows for. However, the reality is that the cheaper the quote the less time they have allocated to your design, which means the less detail you will receive. Again, this gives unscrupulous shopfitters carte blanche to cut corners and deliberately leave out details that the designer has left out. However, these elements of your project are still required, whether they have been documented or not, so suddenly you have more variation between your shopfitting prices and more chance for variations throughout your fitout. It is imperative that you look for at least a mid-priced hospitality architect or designer to ensure you have a decent level of detail to ensure your dream doesn’t turn into a nightmare through the shortcomings of your chosen architect or designer. Also ask for examples of their work and have a look at some of the stores they have designed and see if they are a similar standard to what you are looking for.

HFS Preferred Hospitality Architects and Interior Designers

We understand the importance of focusing on our core business of hospitality shopfitting and recommending and dealing with like minded professionals who complement our business style. This is especially important with hospitality Architects and Designers as it is imperative that you, your shopfitter and your architect/designer can communicate clearly to ensure the ideal outcome for your project. Unfortunately, we have had many experiences with architects or designers that have been negative, whether it is delays in getting details or clarification or dealing with arrogant people who are not interested in working together for an outcome or even worse still you just can’t ever seem to get in contact with them or get a response when you need it!

The list of architects and designers below are handpicked professionals who we have worked with and come to trust with our clients needs. Please contact them direct for a quote on the design of your restaurant, café, bar, hotel, takeaway food outlet or any other hospitality styled project. Don’t forget to advise them that you were recommended to utilise their services by Hospitality Fitouts Specialists.