The man behind Australia's top hotel rooms

From SMH

Room at the top ... Joseph Pang has worked on the Grand Hyatt Melbourne and the Four Seasons, Sydney (pictured). 

IF YOU'VE stayed in the refurbished suites at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne or Sydney's Four Seasons, Westin or Hilton, then you will be familiar with the work of Joseph Pang.

He is one of Australia's most in-demand hotel interior decorators. The aforementioned properties bear his imprint, along with the Melbourne and Sydney InterContinentals, and Hayman and Le Meridien Ile Des Pins Resort in New Caledonia.

During a 30-year career, he has been instrumental in many of the changes in hotel design in this country.

"It [hotel design] was quite institutional in the early part of my career," says Pang, who started his own company, Joseph Pang Design Consultants, in Neutral Bay five years ago.

Before that he was lead designer with interior designers Chhada Siembieda and Associates.

"Brand was paramount," he says. "A hotel had to reflect the brand above all else, there were strict rules about that."

Not so today, with hotels reflective of their location as strongly as their brand.

"Also, a hotel had to look like a hotel room then," Pang says. "Now, the modern hotel room feels like home; it is familiar, it is restful, you feel comfortable in it and understand it as soon as you check in because it is like home."

The winds of change have swept away two of Pang's bete noirs: the bedside console with built-in light switches, clock and radio; and the once-ubiquitous bottle opener set into the side of the vanity basin.

"It's been years since I did one of those," laughs Pang.

While the bedrooms and bars get all the attention from press and public, Pang says corridors are a key element in setting the tone of a hotel.

"A corridor is an important space in a hotel, though the guests probably do not think much about it," he says. "It is the transition from busy public world to the quiet and peace of the hotel room."