According to British architect Julian Taylor, the recession of the early 1990s forced the design industry to a standstill. By mid-decade, though, England was pulling out of the slump, and for architects, nightlife commissions were driving the tugboat, Taylor points out. “Themed bars were a huge growth industry,” he says. Indeed, when Taylor decided to open Hampshire, U.K.–based Julian Taylor Design Associates in 2000, leisure clients provided the bulk of the work. And as the world again stares down economic hard times, he believes top-end nightclubs, restaurants, and bars will prove to be a recession-proof part of the market.
That’s because these spaces represent a fierce business. “Clubs have to reinvent themselves to keep up with the current trends,” says Taylor. The reincarnation of Attica, a former destination in London’s Soho, is a case in point. In the 1990s, celebrities like Donatella Versace swept through its unmarked doors, crowding onto the black room’s tiny dance floor and sipping the house Cristal on tufted black leather seats.
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