Hospitality giant Four Seasons has opened its own design studio, where decisions will be made on everything from table settings used in the group’s hotels to the layout of guest rooms and the outfits worn by hotel staff.

The Four Seasons Research and Discovery Studio (R&D Studio) has been launched at the company’s headquarters in Toronto. Designed as “a workshop designed for experimentation” in which ideas can be explored in greater context, the studio features graffitied walls and communal meeting spots, workspaces and testing areas.

With a growing portfolio of luxury hotels, resorts and private residences in more than 40 countries around the world, Four Seasons maintains its focus on creating unique properties that are custom-designed for each market. Working closely with internationally-acclaimed architects and interior designers, “from the thread count of the sheets that drape its legendary beds to the scent of bath amenities that bring a property’s unique personality to life.”

The studio will have a fully-functional bar for testing coffee and cocktail equipment, an atelier to sample and model employee wardrobes and a table-top staging area to experiment with different combinations of glassware, tableware and cutlery.

The centrepiece is a modular 3D replica of a guest room made out of cardboard. Designed to scale, configurable and customised with beds, closets, end tables, doorways and chairs all made of durable cardboard, the room creates the opportunity to manipulate space and test unusual layouts and challenging room designs in cost-effective cardboard before moving into production of a full model room.

“No two Four Seasons properties are the same,” said J. Allen Smith, president and CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. “So while we draw on our experience from previous projects, all of the decisions we make for each property require careful consideration of what the needs of that particular project are, what the vision of that owner is, and the decisions that we think will best enhance the guest experience in that property.

“Lots of great ideas will come through theR&D Studio; the space allows us to work through a myriad of options in greater context to identify the best solutions for each specific project.”

Company vice president Dana Kalczak added: “The R&D Studio is a critical tool for us because it allows us to make detailed decisions in a holistic environment. When we bring everything together in this space, we better understand how the different elements energise and inform one another.

“We use the R&D Studio to explore rooms that can serve multiple purposes – rooms that give our guests greater freedom and control to use the space as they choose.

"A guest room used to have fixed features – you sleep here, you pour coffee there, you work in one corner and relax in the other. But mobile devices have changed this dynamic. You no longer need to sit at a rectangular wooden desk to ‘work’ – you can just as easily email and take calls from a sofa or from the bed.”