#232 - Hospitality Meets Jacu Strauss - Creating Stories in Space

This week, I sat down with Jacu Strauss, Architect, Designer and Creative Director of Lore Group - the team behind iconic hotels like Sea Containers London, Pulitzer Amsterdam, Riggs Washington DC, Lyle, and 100 Shoreditch.Jacu’s journey is extraordinaryFrom growing up in the Kalahari Desert, dreaming up imaginary worlds, teaching himself to draw and paint, and spending Christmases in his grandfather’s 20 room desert hotel… to studying architecture at the Bartlett, landing a role with Tom Dixon, designing Sea Containers having never done a hotel before, and ultimately shaping some of the most distinctive hotels on the planet.This is creativity, curiosity, and courage in its purest form.In this episode, Jacu and I dive into…Growing up in the Kalahari and learning to “create his own world”How a childhood surrounded by nature, storms and stars shaped his visual imaginationBecoming an architect… in the middle of the 2008 crashJoining Tom Dixon’s studio and learning the power of storytelling in designWinning the pitch for Sea Containers London without ever having designed a hotel beforeWhy hospitality is the ultimate playground of art + scienceHow he builds hotels where guests write their own storiesThe importance of imperfection in design (“interiors should be about people”)Why comfort beats everything — “great bed, great shower, great materials”The unseen touches behind Lore Group hotelsHis philosophy on reducing waste, reusing buildings, and designing sustainablyHow to design when everyone has an opinion - and why the question “Why are we doing this?” matters more than anythingCreativity, boundaries, and the real joy of experimentationThe culture required to make creative teams flourish rather than fear mistakesQuotes from Jacu“I grew up in the Kalahari Desert… I had to create my own world” “Creativity is just problem solving” "Attitude is everything” “You can’t fool people in a hotel” “It’s not just about the end product - it’s about the journey” “Interiors should be about people. Imperfection is the most beautiful thing” “Smell is sometimes the first impression… sometimes even before you walk into a space” “I want guests to write their own story, not have an experience forced on them” "If you skip the first step - experimentation - it’s difficult to complete a project successfully” “There are no rules in design. You have to create your own rules all the time” Why this episode is worth your timeIf you’ve ever walked into a hotel and thought, “Why does this just… feel good?”This conversation is the answer.Jacu brings a rare blend of thoughtful philosophy, meticulous craft, and playful human insight. It’s a deep dive into the creative mind behind some of hospitality’s most beautiful spaces and a reminder that design is really about people, comfort, and emotion, not just aesthetics.It’s poetic, practical, and properly inspiringShow PartnersA big shout out to Today’s show partner, RotaCloud, the people management platform for shift-based teams.RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from a single, web-based app.It makes work simple for your team, too, allowing them to check their rotas, request holiday, and even pick up extra shifts straight from their phones.Try RotaCloud’s time-saving tools today by heading to https://rotacloud.com/philThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy