Suhail (pronounced sa-HAIL) declines to divulge his surname, using only his first name professionally to "create mystery," he says, and to ensure that it "becomes synonymous with his designs." But he's had no trouble being recognized by design industry peers for his entries in furniture and design competitions in Milan and here in Chicago, where his star has steadily been on the rise. Then, “the people from Tizi Melloul called.” At this point, he was “all about metal work,” creating “industrial-looking, hard-core spaces” like p.45, the pioneering Bucktown boutique that opened in 1997, when the neighborhood was still a bit of an edgy artists’ enclave. Eventually, he started his own studio in a garage space on the North Side. He designed a chain of hair salons for friends, teaching himself to weld and fabricating the interior elements himself. Instead of returning to England, Suhail stayed in Chicago because he was having “too much of a good time.” He worked doing photographs and renderings for a book about the history of architecture, all the while entering architectural and furniture competitions. After working at SOM as a self-described “suit” for about six months, the recession hit. He put together a small portfolio of sketches and snapshots on the plane, and “shoved it under the nose” of a Skidmore, Owings & Merrill partner during a presentation for the students. After finishing his graduate work, he tagged along with a group of younger students on a study trip. London native Suhail received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Birmingham School of Architecture in England and came to Chicago in the early 90s. “india is bigger than Hollywood, why not use that source material and abstract it? I don’t want to be too Disneyland, though – too gimmicky.” I like to look at what’s been done and chuck it out the window.” In keeping with the Indian theme, his videos will draw inspiration from Bollywood, but in an indirect way. “what I want to do is eliminate everything that we are accustomed to about lighting in nightclubs. “typically, nightclubs are all about lasers and light shows and shit like that,” Suhail says. He’s designing the dance floor with a lot of video imaging to create ambience instead of relying purely on lighting. The club’s interior will include a chill lounge off the main bar area with a sci-fi feel and a martini lounge that will feature traditional Indian raja style and textures. “Goa” refers mutually to Goa Trance, a high-energy form of psychedelic trance music, and the coastal region of southwestern India for which the genre was named – an enclave for adventure-seeking hippies in the 60s. In typical fashion, Suhail describes it as “clinical…but with a sense of warmth…it will have a very clean look to it, but in keeping with the references to temperature, there’s a ‘cold space’ and a ‘hot space’ within the overall scheme.”Īnother of Suhail’s current projects at home is Goa, a nightclub slated to open later this year with a dance floor that may become the biggest in Chicago. Suhail calls it a “demented pharmacy for coffee” that will incorporate references to hospitals and temperature with vintage coffee brewing equipment, old televisions, thermometers, and other retro-scientific elements. The shop will brew its own coffee and present it as a pharmaceutical product in chemistry lab-type setting. “Fahrenheit 212,” in scientific terms, is the point at which water boils. His concept extends to the shop’s logo, which incorporates a diagram of a caffeine molecule. It’s a good example of the designer’s full-concept package, which includes all elements of design in addition to the interior space. “it’s not going to look anything like a coffee shop…and it’s definitely not going to look like anything in downtown Chicago,” Suhail says. Slated to open in early Spring in Chicago’s West Loop is F212, a small coffee shop with an “anti-Starbucks” theme.
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