Meet Clint Nagata, the architect behind luxury hotels such as Roku Kyoto & The Fullerton Ocean Park Hong Kong

The founder of Blink Design Group, Clint Nagata, may have a Japanese surname but he did not speak a word of Japanese growing up. "My mother... is half-Japanese, half-Hawaiian. My parents have never been to Japan. It wasn't until my 30s that I first went to Japan," shared the founder of the architecture and design firm during an interview in January this year. 

The firm is known for designing hotels such as The Fullerton Ocean Park Hong Kong, Raffles Maldives Meradhoo Resort, Regent Phu Quoc and Roku Kyoto.

Roku Kyoto is the first property of Hilton’s newest luxury brand, LXR Hotels & Resorts, and it opened in 2022 to great acclaim. In Japan, Nagata has also just completed the design of Six Senses Kyoto in the city’s historical centre of Higashiyama. This, as well as the new Banyan Tree Dongguan and Huvafen Fushi Maldives, add to his 2024 portfolio.

Nagata was born and grew up in Hawaii, but he moved to Bangkok when he founded his firm in 2006 after leaving WATG (Wimbely, Allison, Tong & Goo), where he started as an intern and left 14 years later as a partner.

“It’s interesting that through my work, I’m able to get in touch with my heritage. I’ve never felt more connected than I do now in Japan. I enjoy going there and starting on new projects because one, I have to research about the particular place I am designing in and two, just dealing with the Japanese, I feel like I’m getting to know myself better,” he reflected.

Nagata’s projects reflect his ability to tease out the nuances of a culture, and adapt it with modern expressions and refined sensibilities. For example, at Roku Kyoto, he pays homage to the artisans that once lived on the land by incorporating the art of urushi lacquerware, takezaiku bamboo weaving and copperware into the material-rich interiors of the tea lounge, restaurant and bar.

At Regent Phu Quoc, every villa is focused on the scenic views of water and sky. This sense of place is augmented by abstract patterns on screens, carpets and accessories, inspired by structural roof trusses found in vernacular Vietnamese buildings known as Bovi.

In the new Six Senses Kyoto, Nagata’s dexterity in catering to the DNA of different brands while retaining his singular aesthetic comes through. “The Six Senses brand has evolved. Nowadays it’s less bare-foot, less raw and unfinished but still carrying through that biophilia and nature focus,” he commented.

For the design, Nagata drew reference from the famous Myoho-in Temple across the site. “A lot of the hotel’s design cues come from the Edo period when the shrine was built, which is a lot about connecting nature and design. The spaces are still calm like Roku Kyoto, but with that appreciation towards biophilia. The furniture is also softer, for example,” he elaborated.

On whether it was his parents who inspired him into a creative career, Nagata laughed: “I don't know where my creativity came from; my father was a school administrator and my mother was an accountant.”

He added: “But I always liked to draw when I was a kid. I remember always being at my mother’s office waiting for her to finish work, and I would just sit there and draw the tree that was outside the window. Later, I took drawing classes in high school.” 

Ever curious and game for adventures, he took part in a competition organised by Walt Disney Imagineering while still in architecture school. “We designed an underwater theme park. We won the competition and did an internship at Walt Disney Imagineering for a year before going back to school,” Nagata explained, adding that he worked on theme park hotels during the stint.

After graduation, Nagata started in WATG after responding to an advertisement. He came to know about the firm after applying for a travel grant. “It was about visiting these exclusive resorts designed by WATG. Maybe I just wanted to go on holiday,” Nagata chuckled. He did not get the grant but he certainly gained much more at WATG.

The firm was influential in shaping his philosophy and methodology. In particular, Nagata credits three mentors. “The first, Don Goo, was a really good businessman and presenter. He was very good at the big vision and would come out with these ideas that seemed so out there. My second mentor Kevin Chan, who was also a partner, taught me about design. When I joined the firm, I had just graduated and didn't understand proportion and space. He would say: ‘Don't design a column based on it being 600mm in diameter on plan; design it based on the proportions of a space’,” Nagata recalled.

From a third partner Eugene Wanatabe, he learnt the technical aspects of architecture. “I remember a year out of school, I had designed a curved screen for a building. It looked great and was constructed. But the contractors couldn’t get it to site because it was too big,” Nagata mused. “Eugene helped me realise that you can’t just make pretty things; you have to think of how to get them built.”

In 2006, when Nagata left WATG to start Blink Design Group at the age of 35, he was the youngest partner at WATG. He attributes it to the right timing. “When I started at the firm, it was during the economic crisis and many people were laid off. Soon when I looked around, it was just me, the partners and a few people in between. The office was smaller so that gave me the chance to work directly with the partners. It also boosted my career as they gave me many opportunities,” Nagata said.

The decision to leave was because he wanted to “find his own voice”. Before he left, he was travelling to Asia a lot to manage projects for WATG. “I liked the opportunities that existed at that time in Southeast Asia. I was particularly inspired by the creativity in Thailand,” said Nagata, who decided to start a new life there with the firm that now has about 85 staff members across offices in Bangkok, Singapore, Shanghai and Dubai.

Even after leaving, Nagata shared that it took a while before he finally was able to find a design language unique to Blink Design Group – not surprising since he was at WATG for more than a decade. “If you look back at Blink’s earlier work, you could tell we’re still trying to find our own identity whereas today, we’re quite comfortable with what we do,” he remarked. “The place-making sensibilities have always been there but it’s evolved to something much deeper and much more refined,” he contemplated.

In 2017, he made the decision to acquire Jaya Interior Design Business (JID) when the renowned interior designer Jaya Ibrahim – also Nagata’s close friend – suddenly died in 2015. “When we took over the office, we kept things running as they were for a couple of years. I did not feel at that point that it was appropriate for me to influence the design direction so much,” Nagata shared.

This lack of ego is defining of the architect, who practices equality in his own office as well. “The office hierarchy is quite flat in that way; it’s not where I dictate design downwards. It’s more a collaborative relationship between the design directors and me. We’re also very keen on developing the next generation of leaders so we try to nurture staff, empowering them to lead the designs and giving them opportunities to be moved up if deserving,” Nagata stressed.

Call it collaboration, mash-up or synthesis – this openness to seek different ideas and meld them into a coherent, new conversation is the perfect way to describe Nagata’s ‘voice’. He feels that similar to unexpected unions in fashion such as the adidas x Gucci collaboration can produce dynamic results.

“I always feel like there is this co-relation between fashion and luxury for hotel design. Another example is rapper and music producer Pharrell Williams being appointed as the men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton, where he’s pushing the brand a lot more; you still see the Louis Vuitton DNA but it’s a lot fresher,” Nagata mentioned. “That’s how we approach design. There’s still tradition but we also want to move the design forward and at the same time be timeless.”