• Designed by Philippe Starck, even the smallest rooms come complete with fully-equipped kitchen, bathrooms, living area and separate sleeping area.
• Located in the heart of Causeway Bay, the JIA is within one of the foremost shopping and eating areas of Hong Kong.
The Whole Story
In Mandarin, ‘JIA’ means home. The name is intended to be taken literally, as in the place where you live. Unlike most hotels in Hong Kong that cater predominantly to business travellers, JIA was designed with a home-style living concept. JIA does have spacious suites but even the smallest rooms (studios) have facilities you would find in an apartment, complete with fully stocked kitchen, bathroom, living area, working space, separate sleeping area and generous storage. Anyone who spends time in hotels knows how rare it is to get anything without being billed for it, but JIA offers guests a multitude of extras at no additional charge; broadband is complimentary, as are local phone calls, the newspapers, breakfast, all day soft beverages, afternoon cakes and evening wine in the Lobby.
But the real triumph of JIA is the design by Philippe Starck. It's not so much the Starck signature, which in the world of hotels is not exactly groundbreaking, but rather the use of space. It's remarkable what Starck has been able to do with limited square footage of the studio rooms. Three hundred and eighty square feet is small by anyone's standards, and yet at JIA Starck has managed to make it work well. The white marble kitchen comes with a fridge, freezer, built-in microwave, stove top and sink. The spacious all-marble bathroom features a spacious shower, a medicine cabinet hidden behind a lilac-coloured Venetian mirror, a lemon-coloured niche for towels and the engagingly attractive Starck signature washbowl on a marble table. The sitting area sports a comfortable white linen couch, two coffee tables with a fun Chinese motif and a few Starck stools, while the sleeping space is defined by a floor-to-ceiling white sheer curtain. There's also plenty of storage, a large desk with its own filing drawers and built-in cupboards that hide domestic essentials such as an ironing board and hairdryer. Normally I don't describe a hotel room in such detail, but I've never come across space that has been so carefully and cleverly utilized. It's the kind of ingenuity that makes you rethink the possibilities of small spaces and gets you motivated to find a cubby hole of your own.
This design approach is particularly appropriate for Starck, who has a personal preference for cosy spaces. In step with his international profile, he has houses in Venice, Paris, New York and on the French Atlantic coast, and the thing they all have in common is their small size. Small is the way Starck chooses to live, and he's brought his particular way of thinking to the design of JIA's apartments.
It's Starck's international flair with work for companies as diverse as Japanese breweries, Italian furniture manufacturers, Dutch electronic giants and French mail-order houses that have made him famous, but it is this project in Hong Kong that reveals his previously unrecognized talent for addressing mundane needs in a competent, pragmatic fashion without sacrificing his sassy, cheeky modern aesthetic. Who else could combine a place reserved for an ironing board and a microwave with a silver plastic stool in the shape of a tooth?
Starck is also a businessman. JIA is a joint venture between his property development group Yoo and young Singaporean entrepreneur Yenn Wong's company PC Asia. Sure, there's a certain sense of formula to the design content, but there's no denying that Hong Kong needed a place like this. In the Asian world of black, gold and beige business hotels, Jia is the first to make an independent stand. Starck may not be new in town – he designed Felix bar and a restaurant for the Peninsula – but it's certainly the first time an entire hotel here has been devoted to his particular brand of creativity.
Location-wise, JIA could not be more Hong Kong. Bang in the heart of Causeway Bay, the most concentrated shopping strip on the island, JIA is surrounded by more neon, more people and more frenetic bee-like activity than in the busiest street scene of a futuristic sci-fi film. You could satisfy the shopping appetite of a small European nation on one street alone. Nearby Times Square offers the world's largest collection of theme restaurants under one roof: if you want a swap from traditional Szechuan to fusion Japanese, for example, just take the escalator to the next floor.
Causeway Bay is an area not traditionally associated with hotels catering to foreign visitors (although recently all the luxury brands have opened major stores in the area), and that's exactly what makes it so much fun. And JIA gives you a real city pad in the thick of one of the world's most exciting cities.
The Rooms
All hotel rooms are equipped with the following: free broadband; free local calls; flat screen swivel television with cable and satellite; DVD and VCD home theatre unit; music system with surround sound and CD library; kitchen appliances, including cool refrigerator, electric stove and Smeg microwave; cookware and tableware; in room safe; iron and ironing board; IDD telephone; air-conditioning and climate control; coffee and tea making facilities; hairdryer, goose-down duvets and luxury linen; and luxury Arabescato cor marble bathroom and kitchen.
Studio One – 380 square feet – open plan, its square configuration with seamless connectivity maximizes personal space for convenience
Studio Two – 380 square feet – open plan, the long rectangular configuration with seamless connectivity provides a deceptive sense of space
Suite – one bedroom – 780 square feet – elegant and spacious living, dining and working area with separate bedroom for assured privacy.
Penthouse – upper and lower floor – 1570 square feet – the exquisite duplex penthouse with extraordinary spacious living, working and dining areas with kitchen as well as one large en suite bedroom and one bedroom, offers fantastic comfort and style.