Zeynep Didem Bardakcı · 24 October 2026
The feeling a space leaves with its guests is often decided while the project is still being drawn. When a hotel, restaurant or wellness project is still on paper, clarifying these decisions is far easier than revising them later.
The questions we ask at this stage
Who is the space for? How will guests spend their day there? At which moments will they slow down, and where will they come together? The project context, goals and user scenarios are read through these questions.
What does the R1 report cover?
The R1 report we prepare for projects at the draft stage covers:
- Analysis of the project context, goals and user scenarios
- The story of the space and its backbone of experience and identity (experience strategy)
- A shared language with the architectural team: a transferable framework that can feed into the design process
- Support and checkpoints
- Prioritisation and a roadmap
The aim is to help build consistency between concept, budget and implementation. For details, see our Report Templates.
Why at this stage?
When design develops from an intention defined at the outset, there is no need to force coherence later with added pieces. The time, cost and quality lost to revisions are reduced. This reading also covers regulation and safety: fire regulations, escape scenarios, balustrade heights and other vital elements are considered together with spatial decisions.
How we work
In a first meeting, goals, expectations, user profile and context are clarified. Assessments are carried out with our own app and the 1,175-criterion In Between Checklist; a boutique hotel and a restaurant are not read with the same questions (Methodology). The analysis becomes a decision-support report and a prioritised roadmap. On request, we stay alongside the project owner during implementation as an independent outside eye.
We apply this approach to hotel, restaurant and retreat projects.
If the space is already open
For operating spaces we prepare the R2 report: architecture, operations and guest experience are assessed together.