Renovation of the Plaza Athénée bar, meeting with Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku inn 2014

The renovation of a palace is never limited to an aesthetic transformation. She takes an in-depth look at the way a place welcomes, serves and creates emotion.

At the heart of the Plaza Athénée Hotelthe renovation of the bar by Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku perfectly illustrates this evolution: from a décor to a real experience.

Through this encounter, which took place in 2014, a reflection takes shape that is still relevant today on how architecture, teams and the intention of service can transform a space into a place for living.

Hotel renovation: a project of experience before architecture

Hotel renovation is prepared well in advance. It’s important to involve employees in order to fully understand their needs and work with them to improve their working conditions. It’s also important to take a step back from all this, by surrounding yourself with an expert who can contribute his or her knowledge and ideas. This will enable him to prepare a brief to be given to the architect. The latter will have all the information he needs to prepare a pre-project which will be discussed between the teams, the investors, the hotel manager and the expert. At all times, the hotel manager and investor must remain the decision-makers.

Renovation is a great opportunity to reinterpret our service offering and renew ourselves. Unfortunately, hoteliers often just do the same thing over and over again, without changing a thing. It’s a shame. Such is the case of the Ritz Paris, which preferred to renovate as before. Taking the Plaza Athénée bar as an example, Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku have completely redesigned the bar. The bottles of alcohol are no longer on display, and the back office is better equipped to carry out the various preparations that will be finished in the bar in front of the customers’ eyes. It’s a real revolution in the hotel industry.

Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku tell us how they worked with the Plaza Athénée bar team: “We worked together on the bar team’s desires and operational needs. She and her team put a lot of thought into how to improve the bar. We listened to him and made suggestions. The bar is like no other. This is an uncluttered bar, not a temple to all the world’s top brands of alcohol. This is where cocktails are prepared.

Our job is to design a project in keeping with the spirit of the bar that the head bartender wants to create. The furniture is there to make you feel comfortable and to put you in the best conditions to consume and live a great emotional experience. We’re here to magnify the cocktails and other drinks on offer in the bar.

The Plaza Athénée bar: a break with luxury hotel codes

How did you come to work with the Plaza Athénée, what characterizes your work at the Bar, and how do you embody the “Plaza spirit” in your creations?

Our work at the Plaza Athénée is always very special. We don’t work in the whole hotel, but only in certain areas (the bar and restaurant). Our work becomes part of the Plaza spirit.

The bar is an incredible space with beautiful proportions. It’s very warm with all the wood in the space. But it’s a beautiful room from another era, lacking a bit of our age, our time, and our spirit.

With each renovation, we ask ourselves what we can respectfully add to this space, with the aim of changing the energy of the room. It’s always the little things, and it’s in the details that we transform the atmosphere of a room. We had to find something very modern to add to this old room without creating a contrast that would make the customer feel uncomfortable; on the contrary, we were looking for a link with history and a bridge to the future. It’s a bold move for the Plaza to bring contrast to the bar!

We wanted to go as far as we had done in 2000 with the previous renovation, and offer a bigger gap between the last renovation and the new one. On our first visit together, we look at the room for the first half-hour, say nothing, then share whatever inspires us. We aim to create surprise and magic. We delimit the stages of the customer’s view. First, he’ll search the bar with a bit of magic, then the room through the furniture, ceiling, floor and so on. From there, our work begins.

We wanted to bring some color up on the ceiling and a more sober, almost monotonous and even darker color to the floor. The idea was to see more of people’s faces throughout the Bar. Furniture is only present to provide comfort and “private” spaces around large, generous screens and armchairs. They are reminiscent of the furniture on certain cars with armrests. We wanted to create small cells in this bar and a space with high tables to meet the “plural” expectations of customers. The blue drapery on the ceiling is a source of inspiration. We wanted to create a suspended work of art, adding lightness to the proportion of the room.

Before the renovation

The French art of entertaining is a way of building reception areas.

How have you reinterpreted this art?

For us, the art of French hospitality is the feeling of being truly at home, of feeling good in a space that creates energy. The space must be very comfortable and the customer must feel welcome. This is the essence of the French art of entertaining.

The most important thing about the bar is that it’s not just a space, it’s home. The team will be delighted to welcome you and make you feel at home. You feel welcomed like a guest in a friend’s home. The same is true of the restaurant run by Denis Courtiade, who brings an extra touch of soul to the place.

Architecturally, the French art of entertaining also means breathing new life into the space. It’s not a question of destroying them in order to rebuild them, but of bringing modernity and novelty to them, while preserving part of their past. Since our first project with the Plaza, we’ve appreciated the history of the place, but we’ve also asked ourselves the question: “What is a ^21st century Palace? “. So we wanted to be bold and leave a lasting impression. We set out to find something surprising and daring, and to push the limits of what can be done today, in terms of colors, materials and know-how. The idea is not to reconstitute a museum. We wouldn’t have added anything to the room. A museum is something you visit from time to time. A hotel is the opposite. It’s a place of life, where you have to keep on giving life. How to add a soul.

Things to remember :

The renovation of the Plaza Athénée bar poses an essential question: should a hotel be preserved or reinvented?

By opting for measured audacity, the Plaza Athénée demonstrates that a place can evolve without losing its soul.

This is precisely where the notion of generous hospitality comes in: hospitality that doesn’t just welcome, but seeks to create bonds, emotional comfort and a genuine human experience.

With this in mind, renovation becomes a strategic lever:
not to follow a trend, but to redefine the way we welcome people.