Philip Jaffa, partner and design director, Coopers Hill • Hotel Designs

In BIG News, the landscape architecture and the master planning Studio, Scape Design, based in London, brought together with the Ost-Asian landscape architecture company Coopers Hill. The merger is a growth strategy in which Coopers Hill is the first global practice for landscape architecture in hospitality and lifestyle.

The London office of the former Scape Design is now the European basis of Coopers Hill. This European branch is piloted by Philip Jaffa, the founder of the former Scape design, now partner and designer at Cooper Hill, and will concentrate on the European and North African market and at the same time support the growth of the Dubai team.

Coopers Hill has its headquarters in Singapore of all Kerton Allen Kerton and welcomes the London office as a seven international studio – the first outside of Asia and the Middle East.

A self -proclaimed “aging hippie” with a functioning philosophy that endeavors Hotel designs In his renamed London office – a room in a converted theater in the same way around the corner of the (soon opened) six Senses London in Bayswater – to us a little more about this “strategic step forward” and the developing concepts from too tell luxury and sustainability in the hospitality industry.

Hotel designs: What is the motivation behind this merger? Why now?

From the perspective of Coopers Hill in Asia, you would like to expand your brand and break into the European market. At my end, this merger improves everything the Scape design has done. It is even more important that the global hospitality industry has exploded in a way that nobody expected. The demand has been upset and every year there are more and more opportunities for work. The problem did not win any work – it was to manage it.

During Covid and Post-Brexit, I have lost many great employees and the hiring of specialist customers has become incredibly difficult since then. We were in the frustrating position to avert the work just because we don't have enough hands to accept it. When Coopers Hill approached me, it was like music for my ears. This merger provides the scaling and resources that are necessary for further development.

HDIs the existing presence of Coopers Hill in the east for you in the merger to expand into the Asian market?

Before creating Scape Design, I worked on many projects in the Middle East. When I founded the business, I saw that nobody really fought the European landscape architecture in hospitality. Everyone was watching the possibilities in Dubai, but I saw something else. There was a gap and I filled it. As such, the core base of Scape was built in the Mediterranean and southern Europe, where I found the work to be incredibly soulful. To be honest, there are still not many independent landscape practices in Europe that specialize in hotels.

Now Cooper's Hill has an immediate Portfolio from great European projects, Projects from the Middle East ,, and North African projects to add them Dominance of the Asian market. Together we cover 70 countries worldwide.

HD: What makes your work unique and how has she developed over the years?

When I started with the Scape for the first time, I only focused on hotels. But that expanded over time. Most hotel developers also work in residential areas, so of course we have started to take over shared communities, master planning, private goods, mixed developments and retail hotel complexes. After all, our portfolio comprised seven different sectors. But the thread together through all of our work is luxury. That's why I call it “luxury lifestyle”.

HD: How do you define “luxury” in terms of landscape design?

In the context of the landscape design, real luxury is space. It is about creating environments in which people breathe, combine and feel comfortable.

One of my personal design philosophies is about “broad”. In architecture, people often concentrate on maximizing the square meters in a vertical sense, but in landscape design, true luxury comes from width – extensive, open spaces, freedom and a feeling of connection with nature convey. That creates landscape architects.

HD: How has the perception of sustainability in hospitality developed as a designer of environments in the past ten years?

Ten years ago, sustainability was more of a tick box exercise. Developers and brands would include some green elements just to say that they had spoken to it, but it was not always a central focus. Now we see real efforts in order to integrate project locations into their wider surroundings sustainably. Although one of the greatest misunderstandings with sustainable landscape design can be overemphasizing on green walls, green roofs and similar characteristics. Although they look good, they don't always go to the core environmental problems. The actual challenge is to preserve existing and natural systems if possible in order to completely redesign the natural landscape, disturb water currents and damage ecosystems.

I always try to maintain this sustainable and ecological balance in every project. The meeting with everyone, a like -minded environmental landscape designer, who takes care of the future of our planet, was the key to my “yes” of the merger.

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