London Floral Designer Secrets
Designer Laura Kuy shares her inside line on creating magnificent floral arrangements for the Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard.
Few properties boast the glamour of the Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard. Opened in spring 2014 in an iconic London skyscraper designed by starchitect Renzo Piano, the hotel's sleek marble space located from the 34th to the 52nd floors suggest a Jetsons future-world lair designed for the international jet set.
The Gong Bar, London's highest in the city, serves a number of Asian-inspired cocktails with botanical elements including the Bermondsey Bubbles with rosewater and red sugar shards (an edible reference to the skyscraper itself) that turn the cocktail from amber to red, and the Silk Road, served in a steamer basket with edible flowers. Diners in the 35th floor Ting restaurant can watch London's shifting weather patterns and the abstract circuitry of trains and cars and city life over the course of dinner.
But one of the most unique of the Shangri-La's features is its floral design program overseen by Laura Kuy and her staff, whose designs bring warmth and passion to this uber-sophisticated space. Kuy provides an exotic mix of flowers with both Asian and Western inspiration for both the public areas and each room in this stunning hotel.
Kuy and her staff change out the dozens of arrangements weekly, and help hotel guests with weddings or arrange engagement surprises. The hotel is a marriage magnet, says Kuy. There have been more than 300 proposals logged since it opened in spring 2014 and grand floral gestures abound, from full-size cherry blossom trees delivered to rooms or 600 red roses set out by a famous London footballer to surprise his bride-to-be.
See Kuy's exquisite designs and take a peek at the floral cocktails featured at the Shangri-La at the Shard:
