On November 26, 2025, Olya and Ira Sundukova took the stage at HIX London, one of Europe’s leading hospitality innovation gatherings.

 

Surrounded by friends and professionals – Rob Wood, Peter ‘Harry’ Harris, Joel Butler and LUMA MIRRORS’ sunset Reflections across the room, Ira & Olya’s ‘Dance to the Underground’ talk felt raw, fun, and very S+S… a little pocket where the underground could breathe.

Big thanks to the HIX Event team for having us and great seeing everyone in London. For those who missed, enjoy the summary of the day:

 

London was the perfect city for this dialogue – a place where tradition and rebellion live on the same street.

Luxury Punk is our language, and contradiction is our design tool.

“We’re rebels with homework. We’re obsessed with culture, subcultures, and rituals – the invisible codes. Global sameness is boring; cultural nuance makes sparks fly.”

 

When Cultures Collide

The panel explored how hospitality evolves when cultures collide – and how design shapes that tension with taste, mischief, and emotional intelligence.

Today we’re working on three London projects that embody this collision: a Japanese-village-inspired restaurant in Soho, a speakeasy-spa club and an Italian restaurant anchored by piano culture. Three moods. Three subcultures. Three paths into luxury.

 

Celebration as a Biological Need

The conversation turned intimate when we discussed the post-pandemic reality:

The pandemic made the theoretical painfully real. Celebration isn’t a luxury – it’s a biological need. Hospitality became existential: architecting belonging.

It shifted from service to soul, from simply hosting to rebuilding communal rituals – the spaces where strangers become temporary tribes again.

 

Storytelling, Subculture & Emotional Engineering

At S+S design is not decoration – it’s choreography.

“The story always comes first. People don’t remember the chair – they remember the spark.”

Hospitality is emotional engineering: the psychology that makes guests feel attractive, safe, inspired, and unexpectedly alive.

Subculture today is polished, curated, even packaged. People want freedom – just with room service.

 

Designing for Real People

“The guests decide whether the place lives or dies.”

We always start with the guest persona: their mental playlist, age, desires, fears, flirtations, and the moment their night flips from maybe to definitely.

We don’t design pretty interiors for Instagram. Pretty dies fast. Energy lasts.

The more digital life becomes, the more sensual hospitality must be: tactile materials, breathing light, warm acoustics, and circulation that encourages encounters.

 

Community: A Scene Machine

Ira & Olya spoke about Community, a project in Moscow formed not as a venue but as a scene machine: a lectorium-theatre, a dance floor after midnight, an F&B core, and a Gen Z tea room – layered, simultaneous, alive.

“Programming and space amplify each other. Circulation works like a narrative. That’s the difference between a concept and a culture.”

 

Rooftop Hedonism: Mercury in Dubai

Shared the story of Mercury Rooftop, a sensory choreography in Dubai:

“Sometimes the best club in the world is a rooftop with the right person and the right track.

At Mercury, we used sunset as the opening track – lighting as rhythm – creating a dance floor without walls, without noise, but full of tension, glances, and chemistry.”

 

Designing for Gen Z

Gen Z isn’t a style – it’s a pulse.

They crave absurdity and authenticity, softness and freedom, collectivity and intimacy.

So we design for their contradictions, not their Pinterest boards.

 

We closed with the playful challenge of a hypothetical Mind-Altering Hotel for HIX:

“It’s not about trippy décor. It’s about perception. We would design emotional states – curiosity, surrender, intimacy, euphoria – and build a spatial journey around them.”

Transformation is always optional.

Desire is always designed.

 

We are grateful to the HIX team for curating such a bold, inspiring platform for conversation and creativity.