Property Developer, Contractor and Hotelier Unburdened

Without any delays, the interior design of the 650 rooms and general areas of the Nhow Amsterdam RAI Hotel is nearing completion. An operation conducted with almost military precision under the direction of INTERIOR-CONSULT, the Haarlem-based design studio responsible for the total procurement and coordination of the interior design of the largest OMA-designed hotel in Europe.

''It's great to be part of this striking project on the ring road of Amsterdam,'' says owner/director Edzo Bosma. ''It's a gigantic project, which in retrospect, with the opening in sight, you can say went smoothly. Once the train is running. It really is very clever what has been realized here, truly unique.''

INTERIOR-CONSULT specializes in Design & Build of interiors of hotels, resorts and bungalow parks, among others. Bosma: ''This NH hotel involved design support, soliciting products and services, work preparation, contracting suppliers, budget monitoring, planning and coordinating temporary storage, moving in and installation of all goods. For this project, we had to place orders with about 250 suppliers and it involves at least about 1,000 different products. This includes, for example, the box springs, armchairs, closets, safes, minibars, lighting, curtains, the signage, kitchens, buffets, cold rooms, , reception furniture, the video wall all the way to the planting and styling. We have to make sure that the budget is not exceeded, we monitor the entire administration from invoicing to payment. In this way we relieve our clients.''

Initial discussions with the clients developer COD and NH Hotels were held in late 2017. ''From April 2018, we really started implementing this project,'' says José Bontenbal, coordinator projects & procurement. ''Of importance is good preparation and a very disciplined approach. We have to have all the information in about the production time of goods, the logistics process, the installation time and the completion time.'' The interior uses standard products, but also specially designed elements. Here we play a supporting role, for example, we translate the design into the actual situation. We check whether a design can be implemented, which led, among other things, to adjustments in the electrical provisions in the rooms. We check whether upholstery fabrics of the furniture are safe and strong enough for use in a hotel. We can correct if necessary, because we know the pitfalls in design.''

A special interior aspect are the iconic murals in the heart of the hotel, which are also visible from outside thanks to the glass facades. Bosma: ''Those are very dominant, they form a mix of street art and art. It was not clear how they could be executed on the rough concrete walls. We brought in a painter from Zeeland who could do it, Barre Verkerke a true specialist in this field. His work turned out so well that in the restaurant on the 17^the floor was allowed to paint another wall to his own design.''

Proper communication with hotelier, developer and contractor is very important in such a project, Bosma says. ,,For example, we chaired the interior and FF&E (Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment) meetings. We set priorities and monitor the entire project so that we can also foresee where problems might arise and how we can solve them. To keep up the progress, we also occasionally helped design the project ourselves.''

In Sassenheim, INTERIOR-CONSULT has a warehouse where the goods were stored on an interim basis. The construction site at the RAI lacked the space for this. Just-in-time deliveries were made from Sassenheim to Amsterdam, with two INTERIOR-CONSULT project managers present at the construction site to ensure that all goods could be installed at the construction site on time. Bontenbal: ''When they were still pouring concrete on the top floor, we were already setting up the rooms downstairs. That way we could deliver one floor per week, including commissioning and checking installations. The cooperation with main contractor Pleijsier Bouw was very satisfactory. When they were ready, we moved in. As a result, together we were really able to do something special here. The final result is very surprising.