A listed hotel, and nowhere to put a speaker.
The Belvedere was mid-renovation and wanted music through its lounges, restaurant, bar and spa. It had to sound like the rest of the hotel looks, and it had to leave a protected building exactly as we found it.
With the ceilings and walls out of bounds, we looked at what was already there. The radiator covers run the length of the room, so the speakers went inside them. The middle of the room needed filling, so we mounted speakers upside down inside the servery joinery and let the sound come back down off the ceiling.
The designers asked for something that could hold a party, and for nothing on show. Slim arrays are recessed into the mirror frames and the bass sits under the seating and the bar. Guests assume the music is coming from the ceiling.
The lobby and the older lounges have speakers chosen to suit them rather than to disappear: the kind that look like they have always been there. Where space was tight, we used the slimmest cabinets we trust.
Staff get one interface. Zones, sources and levels are set behind the scenes and locked, so nobody has to make a decision at seven in the morning.
Finished on schedule despite several trips across Europe with a van, and named Best Commercial Integration Project at the 2025 Smart Buildings Awards.
Photographed after handover.
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