Not the case study. The reasoning behind one part of it.
Pace Restorer & Cultural Drifter
An excerpt from the Target Guest Mindset and Behavior statement written for Cape Kaido Ōmishima, JdV by Hyatt, a proposed hotel in Japan’s Setouchi Inland Sea (Sept. 2026) — and how I got there. Ōmishima is fifty minutes by road from Onomichi, out along the bridges. Somewhere under them runs the blue line — painted on the shoulder, unbroken, marking about seventy kilometres of cycling route for anyone riding the middle distance. So the segmentation was sitting right there on the tarmac. Cyclists, and everybody else. Every competitive set I looked at had picked a side. I didn’t believe it.…
Being well.
An excerpt from the Wellbeing experience concept statement written for Ginzakōka, The Luxury Collection Tokyo (March 2025) — and how I got there. Brand Experience is what goes where, and what happens there. For the wellbeing floor of The Luxury Collection Tokyo, that work started with a Concept Statement. It isn’t a list of features and it isn’t an idea. It describes what a guest notices, in what order, and what it does to them — written in the first person, because the feeling is the thing being specified. Everything in that passage is a decision. The cold on the…
Mastering Luxury at JW Marriott: The 8 Essentials Every Leader Must Know
An abridged version of the Definition of Luxury programme written for JW Marriott, Marriott International Greater China. Luxury is more than just grand gestures and opulent spaces – it is a carefully curated experience that evokes deep emotions, creates genuine connections, and delivers effortless elegance. At JW Marriott, operational leaders are the custodians of this philosophy, ensuring that every guest encounter embodies mindful luxury in its purest form. Art of Mastering Luxury – A Balancing Act At the heart of the 8 Luxury Essentials is a framework built on two tensions every luxury experience must navigate. Functional vs. Emotional. Functional…
Experience as Healing
A record of Experience as Healing, the first of a series of brand experience programmes Normal . curated at Patina Maldives, Fari Islands through 2023 and 2024. 2–3 June 2023. Images: Guojie Khoo For a short weekend in June, I brought together a group of leaders in the fields of nutritional psychology, health-tech and esoteric practices and headed to Fari Islands, one of the most beautiful, inspired places in the Indian Ocean, to explore new ideas about transformative powers of healing arts and sciences. By 2025, an average connected person anywhere in the world is expected to interact with connected…
Belitung EcoBeach and surrounding islands
Field notes from Belitung, Indonesia, made while Normal . was scoping concept and site programming for Belitung EcoBeach. 2019. When Davide (pseudonym) first made an appearance in my office with an hour notice and announced he owned one-tenth of Belitung Island and that he’s wanting advice for developing that area as socially and environmentally responsible project, I only had two questions – first, where in the heck is Belitung (I’ve been in hospitality for 20 years in Asia and never heard of it) and second, ”ya that environmentally, socially… you and everybody else”. Then I forgot about it for months…