Adelaide recently hosted the annual Design Inn Symposium, a one-day gathering of leading hotel designers and suppliers featuring incisive keynote speakers and engaging industry discussion panels.
One of the presentations was a masterclass in hotel project design featuring the 25hours Hotel The Olympia, recently opened in Sydney’s Paddington. Here is a summary of the presentation delivered jointly by Shelley Indyk, Director, INDYK Architects and Tracey Wiles, Principal, Woods Bagot.
A study in narrative-led hospitality design
A Building with Memory
Adaptive reuse is rarely subtle, and at 25hours Hotel The Olympia in Paddington, subtlety is not the brief. The former theatre and cinema site, once home to the Olympia, Odeon and Academy Twin, arrives with a cultural lineage that is both “fertile and feral,” a phrase that neatly frames the design ambition.
Rather than dilute this history, the project leans into it. The base built by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer retains the architectural gravitas, while the interior response by Indyk Architects positions the hotel as what could be described as an “arthouse” experience. The narrative is not decorative. It is structural.
The Lobby as Stage
Arrival is theatrical by intent. The ground-floor lobby is conceived as “a stage set,” anchored by a reimagined ticket booth that references the building’s original function. Instead of transactional check-in, guests encounter a “video shop rather than a conventional check-in counter,” complete with analogue film reels embedded in the desk.
This is not nostalgia for its own sake. It is a curated transition from analogue to digital culture, expressed spatially. Overhead, a collage light installation spanning decades of Sydney imagery reinforces the temporal layering, while the heritage staircase becomes a cinema library. The effect is cumulative. As Indyk describes, “the entire lobby unfolds like a film,” an idea that holds conceptually, even if it risks overwhelming less patient guests.
Public Spaces and Cultural Layering
Beyond the lobby, the narrative continues with a deliberate density. Event spaces such as the Academy Twin cinema and bar reference the site’s exhibition past, while material selections and artwork maintain a consistent cinematic thread. Carpets inspired by The Shining signal a willingness to embed pop-cultural cues without apology.
The retail component, Steely, provides a counterpoint. Its minimal, modernist expression, defined by a singular blue tone, strips the narrative back to product and form. It is a reminder that contrast is essential in a project of this complexity.
Rooms with Character, Not Uniformity
Guestrooms reject the standardised model. Instead, they are split into two archetypes, “the dreamer and the renegade,” a move that attempts to replace typology with identity.
This is more than a naming exercise. Variations in colour palette, furniture selection and artwork create distinct spatial moods. Collage works by Kubi Vasak and bespoke carpets reinforce the narrative, while the irregular building envelope ensures no two rooms are identical. Heritage windows, terraces and courtyard-facing glazing further diversify the experience.
The intention is clear. Guests are encouraged to “align with an identity, rather than simply occupying a room.” Whether this resonates operationally will depend on how effectively these distinctions are communicated at the booking stage.
Detail as Discipline
The project’s strength lies in its consistency. From wayfinding to joinery, every element contributes to a broader story. Bathrooms, often an afterthought, are treated as highlights, continuing the material and narrative language.
There is a risk inherent in this approach. Narrative density can tip into over-articulation. Yet here, the discipline of execution largely holds. The design does not rely on a single gesture. It builds incrementally.
Industry Perspective
The Olympia is a case study in narrative-driven design that resists homogenisation. It demonstrates how heritage, when treated as an active design driver rather than a constraint, can produce a differentiated product.
More importantly, it challenges the prevailing model of neutral luxury. By embedding story, cultural reference and spatial variation, the hotel positions itself outside the standardised global template.
25hours Hotel The Olympia succeeds where many lifestyle hotels falter. It commits to an idea and carries it through every layer of the guest journey. The result is not universally accessible, nor is it intended to be. It is specific, occasionally idiosyncratic and firmly anchored in place.
In a market saturated with polished but interchangeable offerings, that specificity may prove its most valuable asset.
by Rod Eime – (c) 2026.
Read Time: 4 minutes.
About the Author.
Widely published, multiple award-winning specialty travel and tourism journalist and photographer with a broad general knowledge.
Rod’s experience in professional media spans four decades, giving him a firm grounding in traditional media as well as an insight into the evolution of digital and online communications.
A natural storyteller, Rod seeks to entertain, inspire and engage readers as well as inform and educate. Whether it is an adventure travel story amongst reindeer herders in Siberia or a potentially stodgy end-user account for an industrial lubricant manufacturer, Rod believes a reader should be enriched and motivated.
His photography has won several awards, including a rare double ‘Travel Photographer of the Year’ gong from the Australian Society of Travel Writers in 2011 and 2013.
An early adopter of digital and online publishing, he first published web pages in 1994.
Learn more at www.traveloscopy.com or contact him at [email protected].
