The Art of Collaboration

“I am a believer in collaboration with the best in their field,” says Samantha Drummond, Founder of Habitus Design. “That way, exceptional design ideas can form and be delivered that might not have been thought possible.”

Habitus Design Group has always sought to work collaboratively with architects, artists, world-leading chefs, luxury fashion brands and, indeed, other design companies. It is an approach that Samantha learnt when she was Design Director of the project to build Marina Bay Sands, orchestrating teams of specialists, facilitating successful coordination between them and ensuring that the client’s vision was realised. She found the experience of working with some of the most creative people in the world fascinating.

“Great artists, chefs and designers are always forward thinking and experimental. I learnt so much from leading the design effort at Marina Bay Sands, not least that anything is possible, and when I founded Habitus Design Group I was determined that collaborations would be part of our culture.”

One of Habitus’s collaborations is with Hunat Glass, the celebrated designer of bespoke glass installations based in North Bohemia, where the tradition of hand-blown glass has flourished for centuries. As a result of the partnership, a magnificent Hunat chandelier presides over the main lobby of Solaire Resort & Casino’s new VIP Club, comprising nearly 1,000 hand-blown glass tubes of various colours, shapes, dimensions and optical structures, together weighing in at 2,500 kg. Hunat is currently crafting a number of other exclusive chandeliers for Habitus projects, working to designs originated by Samantha.

“Our installations are all over the world, but our approach remains personal and artisanal,” says Adam Zahradnik of Hunat. “It’s about listening well to clients and knowing how to interpret what they say into a genuinely original piece in which we can all take pride.”

For Samantha, the secret to their successful relationship is that they speak the same language; they are both perfectionists, extremely conscious of the client’s high expectations and they share a creative eye. She recognises the potential pitfalls of collaborations and believes you must do your homework carefully before investing time, energy and, indeed, your own reputation in a collaboration. “It’s not like placing an order with a manufacturer,” she says. “For a collaboration to deliver its potential you must have the right ingredients to start with and then be prepared to nourish the relationship.”

Habitus is designing the new Solaire North resort in Quezon City, north of Manila. A 30-metre high atrium sits at the heart of the main building and question was how to create a ‘wow’ experience and the Instagram moment for guests and visitors while encouraging them to visit all the storeys of the building that flow around the void. Samantha commissioned US artist, Nikolas Weinstein, to translate her idea for a semi-transparent sculpture that would transition up through the space and take on different personalities through day and might, into a monumental glass artwork. The result will be a sculpture of some 100,000 pieces, probably the tallest sculpture in the world, both airborne and anchored, and designed for human interaction.

Samantha concludes: “If you want your project to be original and engaging on a deep, personal level, it’s invaluable to work with talented teams outside our own practice. Collaborations have the power to be inspiring, help everyone learn and raise their game and to achieve extraordinary results for the client.”

https://www.samanthadrummond.com