Integrated hospitality company Fusion has announced the third brand to its portfolio with the opening of the first Fusion Originals hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

Scheduled to open in the summer of 2019, Darwin – a Fusion Original, is currently under construction in the heart of Saigon’s District 1, less than 200 meters from the city’s iconic opera house and close to shops, restaurants, cafés, bars, and tourist hotspots.

Each Originals hotel will bear the name of a pioneering artist, inventor, scientist, or social leader. For the inaugural property of the collection, the brand selected Charles Darwin, the British botanist, scientist, and naturalist who redefined mankind’s place in the universe.

“Exciting, slightly rebellious all-new brand”

“World-changing ideas are what Fusion is all about,” said Remco de Hoog, Fusion’s chief architect. “Charles Darwin is the perfect person to launch this exciting, slightly rebellious all-new brand.”

The 88-room hotel will aim to “play a theme of 19th-century discovery and adventure”. Fusion’s designers have focussed on Darwin’s tireless studies of plants, animals, and people from all over the globe and will honour this by featuring botanical motifs, super-sized extracts of Darwin’s manuscripts, and a palette of all-natural tones and textures in the interiors.

There will even be a copy of Darwin’s most famous publication, On the Origin of Species, inside every bedside unit.

In the ground-floor lobby, the Beagle Bar will host regular live music and spoken-word events with old-school rum cocktails and local craft ales. Meanwhile, Origins Restaurant, home to a re-imagined breakfast concept known as T.O.A.S.T. (The Original Answer to Snooze Time), will serve dishes inspired by Charles Darwin’s global journeys.

“We love shaking things up”

“With Darwin and every Fusion Original that comes after it, you’ll never quite know what to expect,” added de Hoog. “We love shaking things up, and we think our guests will really enjoy the feeling of entering the unknown each time… in a good way, of course!”