Smaller but perfectly formed: Mandarin Oriental arrives in Mayfair

This article first appeared in Mix Interiors #233

Words: Harry McKinley

“We see ourselves as the young, cool sibling,” jokes a member of the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair team, contrasting the 50-key property to the illustrious Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. With 168 guestrooms and 26 suites, MO Hyde Park is one of the capital’s grandest stays, occupying a landmark building that dates to the late 1800s; the brand’s European flagship.

Mayfair then, is positively boutique by comparison, and a stylistic departure. Set on Hannover Square, it is the first new build in the neighbourhood in over a decade. RSHP led on the architectural front, creating an aesthetic and technical marvel – one of the first buildings in the UK to deploy the Vierendeel technique. This sees a steel exoskeleton wrapped around the development, infilled with red brick ‘baguettes’ (the longest in the UK) that nod to the surrounding Georgian terraces. It is unashamedly contemporary but, as RSHP explain, “a townscape response” that takes account of the square’s “historic urban grain”.