"It's very similar in a way to the residential work that we've done," John Hitchox, cofounder and chairman of Yoo, tells GlobeSt.com. "A hotel is frequently seen as extension of the home, in the sense that it is where one sleeps and rests."

The Split project is expected to launch in 2011 on behalf of luxury-brand specialist the Spectator Group, according to a release. However, while it served as the catalyst for the new hotel group, it's not the first hospitality venture from Yoo, a design-oriented property development company headquartered in New York and London and founded in 1999 by Hitchox and designer Philippe Starck.

The JIA Hotel in Hong Kong, designed by Yoo, was voted "best boutique hotel in China" by The Independent and made the Conde Nast "Hot List 2006" for design, the release states. The Mondrian Hotel in the South Beach section of Miami is the work of Yoo's newest design partner, Marcel Wanders.