Activist hotelier Katherine Lo merges hospitality and social change with Kengo Kuma collaboration
– Katherine Lo
Katherine Lo, daughter of Langham Hospitality Group chair Ka Shui Lo, has transformed the group’s Eaton brand into Eaton Workshop – a global lifestyle business including a wellness component.
Lo used her background in activism, anthropology and film to create Eaton Workshop, which includes four distinct parts: hotel, house, media and wellness.
The first hotel is set to open in Washington DC early this year, with locations to follow in Hong Kong, San Francisco and Seattle.
Each Eaton Workshop will offer the physical resources of a hotel, modern-day social working club, radio station, cinema, wellness centre, restaurants and bar, retail, art gallery, event spaces and more. Leong Leong and Kengo Kuma are among the architects commissioned by Lo, while Gachot Studios, Parts and Labor Design and Avroko will provide interior design services.
“The brand is the manifestation of me ‘following my bliss’ so others can follow theirs,” said Lo.
“Beyond the eco-minded design and community-oriented offerings, through the power of our programming and content, we'll take a moral stance and catalyse productive, positive change through dialoguing, following the recent examples of tech companies refusing to serve extremist violent racist ideologies.
"We're an ethical business, welcoming those who share our desire to build a better world and protect not just the planet, but one another.”
Each site's aesthetic is designed to tell the specific story of the site’s history, heritage, neighbourhood and location – such as an indoor Redwood forest park planned for the San Francisco Eaton Workshop.
The brand will focus on sustainability, creating partnerships with organic bath products and organic mattress companies, installing rooftop organic gardens and wind turbines, and practising aerobic food waste decomposition.
The 209-bedroom hotel will include a wellness centre with yoga, meditation and alternative treatments, as well as an event space, coworking club for 370 members, rooftop bar, restaurant and cinema.
“Recent political events make our first hotel in DC that much more trenchant,” says Lo. “The Eaton we are creating will be a safe space and sanctuary for all: international, people of colour, LGBTQ and more.”
Wellness programming at Eaton Workshop is inspired by new-age practices and experiential learning traditions, including community-building yoga and meditation classes, alternative therapies reiki and acupuncture, and sensory experiences such as infrared saunas and sound baths.
The brand will also offer “vegetable-forward” and detox food and beverage, as well as hosting guest speakers from the health and wellness industry.
The Eaton Hong Kong will be located in the emerging Kowloon neighbourhood, and is inspired by the gritty retro nostalgia of its neighbourhood.
Described as reflecting “a dynamic collision between postcolonial east and global youth culture,” Eaton Hong Kong will open in the summer and will have 465 bedrooms, including two with recording studios, a rooftop pool and yoga studio, radio station, rotating art gallery, speakers auditorium, event space for 700 and a coworking club for 320 members.
Eaton Workshop Katherine Lo Langham social change hospitality wellnessLangham reveals plans to open hotel with Chuan-branded spa in Bangkok in 2021
Langham's 20th property opens in Hainan with Chuan Spa
Historic Santa Fe mountain resort one of three new US Langham properties
Langham announces two new hotels in China
UAE’s first Dior Spa debuts in Dubai at Dorchester Collection’s newest hotel, The Lana
Europe's premier Evian Spa unveiled at Hôtel Royal in France
Clinique La Prairie unveils health resort in China after two-year project
GoCo Health Innovation City in Sweden plans to lead the world in delivering wellness and new science
Four Seasons announces luxury wellness resort and residences at Amaala
Aman sister brand Janu debuts in Tokyo with four-floor urban wellness retreat
€38m geothermal spa and leisure centre to revitalise Croatian city of Bjelovar
Two Santani eco-friendly wellness resorts coming to Oman, partnered with Omran Group
Kerzner shows confidence in its Siro wellness hotel concept, revealing plans to open 100
Ritz-Carlton, Portland unveils skyline spa inspired by unfolding petals of a rose
Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners are just one of the names behind The Emory hotel London and Surrenne private members club
Peninsula Hot Springs unveils AUS$11.7m sister site in Australian outback
IWBI creates WELL for residential programme to inspire healthy living environments
Conrad Orlando unveils water-inspired spa oasis amid billion-dollar Evermore Resort complex
Studio A+ realises striking urban hot springs retreat in China's Shanxi Province
Populous reveals plans for major e-sports arena in Saudi Arabia
Wake The Tiger launches new 1,000sq m expansion
Othership CEO envisions its urban bathhouses in every city in North America
Merlin teams up with Hasbro and Lego to create Peppa Pig experiences
SHA Wellness unveils highly-anticipated Mexico outpost
One&Only One Za’abeel opens in Dubai featuring striking design by Nikken Sekkei
Luxury spa hotel, Calcot Manor, creates new Grain Store health club
'World's largest' indoor ski centre by 10 Design slated to open in 2025
Murrayshall Country Estate awarded planning permission for multi-million-pound spa and leisure centre
Aman's Janu hotel by Pelli Clarke & Partners will have 4,000sq m of wellness space
Therme Group confirms Incheon Golden Harbor location for South Korean wellbeing resort
Universal Studios eyes the UK for first European resort
King of Bhutan unveils masterplan for Mindfulness City, designed by BIG, Arup and Cistri
Rural locations are the next frontier for expansion for the health club sector
Tonik Associates designs new suburban model for high-end Third Space health and wellness club
How Portugal’s biggest brewer enlisted the help of one of the country’s best known architects to turn two historic nature parks into thermal spa and nature destinations