Meet Nadira Lalji, Owner of Inhabit Hotel, London

In a continuation of Inhabit’s ethos of mindfulness and wellness, we curated a holistic art programme for the guest rooms and public areas to engage guests in a multi- disciplinary art experience that celebrates Inhabit’s mission, London sensibility and Scandinavian style.

We have 440 pieces of art in the hotel: 204 artworks in communal areas and corridors, and 236 in guest rooms. Our artworks follow six curatorial themes that we felt represented wellbeing for our guests and wellbeing for the wider world, including Lucky Life (embrace opportunity), Supernatural (connect with vivid nature), Mindful Escape (meditate; reflect; repeat), Interconnectivity (it’s all relative), and Peaceful Play (be in the moment).  

Our art programme is an example of our overriding commitment, as a hotel brand, to promote local and international culture. The programme features a mix of emerging and established artists working in a variety of mediums, including textile, metal, painting, and photography. Our hope is that the experience inspires guests to reflect on their surroundings in the context of Inhabit’s ethos, while also connecting with the works and each other through the inclusive, universal language of art. 

What inspired the name of the hotel?

I read a few books about mindfulness, lagom and hygge: all concepts that explore the idea of comfort and, most importantly for me, comfort in the quotidian – our day-to-day living and routine. As I read these books, I kept an eye on words, marking up the books as I leafed through them, and ‘inhabit’ kept surfacing and summarised it for me and our team.

What is the most important element when thinking about a hotel? 

Hospitality is fundamentally about people: connection and the human touch are at its core. It is a service business. As a youthful brand, we deliberately adopted service standards that are less formal, more peer-to-peer and relaxed, in line with the residential feel of our kitchen, communal dining and library spaces. 

When thinking about what really mattered to us as travellers, we wanted to feel restored. So creating a restorative experience became key. While our hosts at Inhabit seek to offer our guests great service, Inhabit has the principal aim of offering a pause from the frenetic everyday. Our aim is to nourish the senses, the body and the mind. We wanted to demonstrate consistency and thoughtfulness at every touchpoint.

How do you source the art and the furniture? 

Over a number of years, I have actively sought out local fabricators, artists and social enterprises working to upcycle, reuse wasted materials and offcuts and redistribute goods. It has been a journey; there’s no centralised platform that I have found yet that organises and curates such enterprises. 

MF is a platform (as well as our own online retail platform) to do so for others, and really spotlight these incredible individuals, non-profits and businesses. We have put out calls to action for artists at a range of institutions (Ravensbourne, Somerset House Studios and Makerversity, for example) for a number of our hotel projects, and will continue to build on these creative collaborations.

Do you have an object that has a special place in your heart?  

A book called Wisdom, given to me at the age of eighteen; I return to it time and time again. It is filled with timeless wisdom from Indian masters. I have passed on many of my cherished books to the Inhabit library, but this one remains with me. I also treasure some simple sandalwood prayer beads made from my time living in India as a child. 

Can you tell us about Yeotown?

Yeotown is an innovative, plant-centric kitchen and health retreat. It’s a place that inspires healthy habits (one of Inhabit’s goals). When I met Yeotown’s founders, Simon and Mercedes, several years ago in Devon, I was drawn to them both. I did not want wellness to be perfunctory or in any way an afterthought at Inhabit, and their deep and holistic experience in the wellness industry made them the ideal partners. 

What has this year changed for Inhabit? 

Inhabit has been closed; and, at the same time, so much has changed. This has also given us time to breathe and focus on our next Inhabit project (a site in Queens Garden) as well as our Montcalm hotel group. Our London portfolio encompasses 20 hotels, and only having two stay open through the pandemic has enabled us to reconsider the portfolio in totality. While the hotels have been shut, we have also had the chance to look beyond the day-to-day to our strategy and to explore important issues such as the consumption of energy, waste and water management across our portfolio.