UCLA students work on Karma Group designs
Architecture students from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have presented their final designs for a Karma Group resort development in Mykonos.
Karma Group’s founder and chairman John Spence and Georgina Huljich of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S tasked 14 masters students from the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA to design an approximately 40 room hotel for a piece of land in Mykonos, Greece, owned by Karma Group.
During the course of his Distinguished Visiting Fellowship in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, Spence worked closely with the students as they developed their ideas, including sponsoring an immersive research trip to Mykonos.
John Spence reviews the students’ designs
The final presentations were made to a panel of industry experts that included Spence and Huljich, and the results were extremely well received. The students were required to present large models of their prospective developments alongside plans and drawings. Karma Group is currently having the work photographed and developed into a book that will be available as part of their Karma Collection.
“It has been wonderful working with this group of extremely talented young designers,” said Spence. “The future of hotel/resort architecture is certainly looking bright and I would like to thank UCLA, Georgina and most of all the students. I hope as they now graduate and walk into the real world they will take away a few key concepts…. Carpe Diem…. there is always time for a savage lunch… and it’s always more fun to be a pirate than be in the navy!”
“I am so thankful and honored to have had John collaborate with us in our UCLA studio,” said Huljich. “His vision, expertise and endless energies were crucial to the success of the projects as well as his commitment to design and architecture being of greatest value in our academic environment. I am truly looking forward to our next collaboration. John is by now an experienced teacher!”
John Spence addresses the UCLA students
Karma Group has properties all over the world, from the south of France to Bali, the Greek Islands, India and West Australia, most of which are affiliated to RCI.
A constant hallmark of their properties is their exquisite design and the relevance to the environment that they inhabit – attributes visible in all the designs presented by the students. Spence’s keen eye for architectural quality has seen his company acquire and build spectacular properties all over the world that perfectly reflect the Karma ethos of offering extraordinary experiences in the world’s most beautiful locations.
