Sir Terence Conran

The Designer: Sir Terence Conran

Sir Terence Conran

The Profile: Now in his late 70s Sir Terence Conran is the king of UK design. His ideas on interiors transformed a nation back in the 1960s when he created Habitat and brought good design to the masses. This was followed by the more upmarket, The Conran Shop. Since then his design ideas for restaurants, offices and luxury hotels have all been landmarks of design. His children Jasper and Sophie have gone on to be design names in their own right.

The style: Sir Terence Conran has said: "Colour plays an enormous part in our enjoyment of life. I store up colour images and try to connect them to emotion". His designs from homewares to hotels have always used colour. In his designs he expresses an interest in shape, form and materiality. However Conran maintains the notions of comfort and intimacy which he believes are timeless. Conran and Partners design ethos is to design to "improve the quality of life" essentially making one's stay more comfortable as well as more pleasing to the eye. The interiors designed by Conran and Partners are often based on an underlying idea which incorporates arrangement of space, materials and graphics. Recently he has received accolades for his Boundary project. Housed in a Victorian industrial building in Shoreditch, The Boundary opened in January 2009 and comprises a 17-bedroom boutique hotel, a roof garden with bar and grill, fine dining restaurant as well as a cafe and food store.

In his blog from mydeco.com Conran writes: "The future of design is an exciting one, new technology and techniques are opening up fantastic opportunities for the designer. But it remains the designer's responsibility to help improve the quality of people's lives". Well said.

Fitzwilliam Hotel Dining Room Fitzwilliam Hotel Lobby The Great Eastern Hotel Lobby