Australian miner-turned-designer Ashley Sutton has revolutionised Hong Kong’s entertainment scene with the opening of three dramatic cocktail spaces. He speaks with Nick Walton about his passion for the sea, his earliest inventions, and how captivating design can influence today’s travel experience.
Most designers I’ve met have no problem talking about themselves and enjoy their time basking in the limelight of their successes. Aussie designer Ash Sutton isn’t one of those designers. In fact, despite his imaginative concepts at ground-breaking Hong Kong nightlife hotspots Ophelia, J.Boroski, and The Iron Fairies receiving critical acclaim and earning the former miner coveted awards, the only basking Sutton wants to do is under the Western Australian sun.
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His shy reluctance to admit his obvious talents; the way he gets tongue-tied when you talk about his recent accolades; and the way his mind drifts off when we talk about days spent cruising off the coast of Perth, only make the designer more enigmatic.
You can be forgiven for not having heard of Ash Sutton until recently. Despite designing since the tender age of six, Sutton has kept his creativity under the radar, his few venue designs in Bangkok (which include Maggie Choo’s and A.R Sutton Engineers Siam, where he distills his own gin, Iron Balls) garnering a cult-like following rather than mainstream acclaim.
“I was building and drawing and designing from a very young age,” says Sutton. “I used to design boats, and treehouses and underground cubbies. I used to draw all the time, and create machines, and magical places. I’d look at a tree and think about exploring its depths, discovering hidden rooms and spaces and create concepts in which I could get lost. Even today I like to take myself to another place with my work and hopefully give that experience to my customers as well.”
Without formal training in design, a young Sutton gravitated towards the building and engineering industries, working an iron ore mine in Western Australia that would inspire his children’s book The Iron Fairies, and later his popular cocktail and live music bars in Bangkok, Tokyo, New York and now Hong Kong. “I was working with a bunch of characters; they were pretty institutionalised as many had been working undergroundin the mines much of their lives. I was a pretty humble guy back then, I didn’t even drink, so I would just study them and it was quite amusing. Many of the characters in the fairy storybooks are based on real people.”
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From deep in the earth to high in the heavens, elements of nature can be found at the core of many of Sutton’s designs, from the peacock features which adorn the walls of Ophelia, and the painted beetles that climb the ceilings of JBoroski, to the 10,000 butterflies which seemingly dance on the breeze above customers at The Iron Fairies. “I was never really read a fairy tale as a child. The Iron Fairies is more about a magical underground world and I guess the inspiration also comes from my garden – I really love my garden and I always find magic in gardens and flowers and insects. You can really let your imagination wander.”
Despite opening the first Iron Fairies in his metal workshop in Bangkok, a city he has called home for a decade, Sutton is increasingly spending his time in Hong Kong, where his three venues for Dining Concepts have revolutionised the city’s nightlife scene, with Ophelia, the first project, winning the best bar and restaurant award at the 2016 FX International Interior Design Awards, and gold at the Hong Kong Restaurant Interior Design Awards (HKRIDA) the same year.
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For many punters, it’s the first exposure to the manifestations of the designer’s imagination, from an exotic bird shop that fronts an opium den-styled boudoir, to a workshop enchanted by 12 fairies, each of which has its own name and personality. “I just try to design something that excites me to build it; something that excites my mind, and hopefully that will also excite customers. I try to make every space different and always exciting.”
Both Bangkok and Hong Kong have proven to be great stages from which Sutton has reached a wider audience, especially within the hotel and hospitality worlds. Dreadnought, a bar, and restaurant he based on a commercial mining crew in space opens next month at the Avani Riverside Plaza in Bangkok, while Sutton is also working on hotel-based speakeasies in Hanoi and Mumbai, and rooftop bars in Phu Quoc and Hua Hin. “Design influences the travel experience hugely and I think the whole hotel industry needs a good shake-up in terms of design and the customer experience, especially resorts. I can’t wait to do a resort, to give people a real experience rather than just a number on the door.”
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However, despite creating captivating spaces for travellers and locals alike, no destination can compare with home for Sutton, who pines for the sea and the simplicity and solitude of life in Western Australia. “I miss the air quality, the nature, and the ocean,” says Sutton, emerging from another bout of daydreaming. “I try to get back to Perth once a month or so; I have a nice place there on the ocean so I love going back. I like exploration, researching underwater shipwrecks, island hopping and experiencing nature. It’s all pretty chilled.”
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