Mark Humphrey’s first nightclub design not only is an award winner but has raised the bar in the sector with a stunning blend of materials, bespoke sculptural shapes and extraordinary lighting

Details

Client: Moruf Yoozooph & Freddie Achom
Design: Mark Humphrey London (MHL)
Size: 520 sq m
Completion Time: 10 months
Cost: £3.5m

Project Details

In the restaurant industry good design is almost as important as good food, but nightclubs, even high-end ones, can look disappointingly generic. Not so Jalouse, a members-only club in London’s Mayfair to which interior designer Mark Humphrey brought some unusual and rather lofty influences.

‘Inspired by past masters, I focused on fusing different periods together harmoniously, from Da Vinci to Matisse and from Moore to Newton,’ says Humphrey, who created several of what he calls ‘functional sculptures’ for the club, such as sculpted washbasins inspired by the human form in the men’s, women’s and VIP toilets.

The brief, driven by the club owners, entrepreneurs Moruf Yoozooph and Freddie Achom, was to design an elegant interior that raises the standard of design for high-end nightclubs in London. As the rather mocking name suggests (Jalouse – French for jealous – references the club’s exclusive entrance policy), much time and money has gone into making this one of London’s most desirable nightspots.

‘I combined both natural and synthetic materials, of the highest standard and quality,’ says Humphrey, ‘including precious onyx, hand-carved by master craftsmen, and custommoulded, jet-black, mirror-polished carbon fibre.’

As with all designer nightclubs, lighting was hugely important, and the focal point of this scheme is a lighting installation in the ceiling directly above the main dance floor. It twinkles with nearly 3,000 diamond-shaped pieces of cut crystal, lit by LEDs.

The ceiling ‘took months to implement’, says Humphrey, who also designed a moving centre, which changes colour independently from the rest of the installation as it travels up and down.

Entrance to Jalouse is members’ only on most nights, so the entrance to the club is deliberately discreet in its design. A raised Jalouse logo on the metal handle of one of the twin glass doors is the only indication to the club’s name. The doors themselves have a surround made of brushed stainless steel, and panels of frosted glass lit from behind by coloured LEDs give just a hint of what lies within.

Inside, a staircase lit by 13 LED lights mounted in hand-carved onyx sconces takes guests down to the main open-plan club area where they pass one of Humphrey’s functional sculptures, the Goddess Lamp, hand carved by Italian craftsmen in Pietrasanta from rare onyx and lit from within.

The bar and DJ booth, both also designed by Humphrey, are custom-made ‘sculptures’ of black mirror-polished carbon fibre topped with 60mm deep honey-coloured onyx counters. The dance floor has been tiled with back porcelain tiles and has podiums with illuminated onyx tops.

Co-owner Achom had noticed that a lot of high-end nightclubs were let down by the design of their washrooms, so he asked Humphrey to create something special.

The men’s and women’s washrooms are tiled with satin-finish black porcelain tiles and feature oak-veneered cubicles with laminated glass doors. Each washroom has washstands made of black mirror-polished carbon fibre topped with polished hand-carved white onyx basins illuminated with coloured LEDs. The VIP washroom has a one-off polished rock-crystal and marble washbasin.

If this profusion of luxurious materials seems like too much of a good thing, remember that Jalouse’s clientele (Paris Hilton and Ronan Keating both attended the launch party) aren’t easily impressed. Opening a club like this in the midst of a recession was something of a gamble, and Yoozooph and Achom knew they had to go all out on the club’s interior.

The gamble seems to have paid off, with Jalouse winning plaudits including best new club at the London Bar and Club Awards in 2009 and Best Club at the same awards last year.

Whether or not the Jalouse regulars recognize that the beautiful things around them were inspired by the likes of Da Vinci and Matisse is anyone’s guess, but who cares – it works.

This article was first published in fx Magazine.