NATIONAL REPORT—Hotel Business recently caught up with architecture and design firms for insight into the latest industry trends, challenges and what’s on the horizon. Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA), TPG Architecture and HOK all weighed in on what’s in store for the hospitality space.
All firms agreed that the industry is saturated with hotel brands, making it difficult to differentiate and, as a result, for architects and designers to stand out among the crowd. For Darrell Long, partner at HBA Los Angeles, sincerity is key.
“The irony is that there is only a sliver of light between them all [brands], so to create an honest design and experience, context [again] becomes king,” Long said. “I know, the idea of context isn’t sexy or disruptive, but great—or even good—design at its least common denominator is form and function. It’s what is carved and extruded and organized.”
According to Long, this context needs to serve a purpose. This can come from the property site or its historic attributes, and even in the brand identity standards, all of which should be part of the design narrative.
“It’s the treasure map that everyone’s lost or forgotten. The days of stretching our minds and experiences into a story are considered antiquated, and that is completely and horrifically wrong,” Long noted.
He continued, “There needs to be a backlash of creative idealism against the likes of Pinterest, for example, to ensure that we are not just regurgitating our own ideas or, worse yet, regurgitating everyone else’s ideas, which are the loss of creativity and the acceptance of plagiarism. While this might sound the doom-and-gloom alarm, it’s not. The ship is turning back to the cerebral side.”
Ownership of ideas comes with leadership, and leadership starts with action. Long said that a lot of this leadership loss is because of the digital climate and social media’s proliferation, especially among younger workers.
“I would love to see the industry embrace more creativity; I understand that statement is wildly and irrepressibly ambiguous—I get it,” he said. “Think of the three-legged stool theory: One leg is creative, one leg is time allocation, and one leg is quality. Theoretically, you can only have two legs in any given project.”
Long added, “So what suffers? Creative delivery, and it goes something like this: ‘I’m not going to think hard; I’m just going to go to my favorite website or app where I keep all of my favorite images, so I can be inspired by my own favorite items because I don’t have time.’ In other words, we really need to unplug, pick our brains and pick up a pen.”
Julia Monk, senior principal/director of hospitality design for HOK, mentioned the “Pinterest factor” of design as well, noting the inclination to source inspiration online, which is often stale and oversaturated with content.
“Design is much richer than a moment captured in a photograph,” Monk said. “We find that often we must re-educate the marketplace about the importance of our services, our value and our processes.”
She continued, “Our challenge as architects and designers is to carefully understand the brand to which we are designing as well as its competition, so that we can push the brand boundaries without crossing into brand blur.”
Other leaders recognized social media and the struggle for individuality, highlighting its power to stunt creative thought.
“I look up from my desk and see a sea of staff members on their respective phones or tablets just hitting the follow button,” Long said. “So, a good trend, particularly in younger staff members, would be to stop following and start leading. All in all, brilliance plus time equals complacency. That’s where we are, in search of something new—not necessarily contemporary, just something new.”
Shay Lam, managing executive for TPG Architecture, said that not only those in the design community but guests themselves take to online platforms, knowing full well what’s trending and what’s not, making it that much more pivotal for hotels to evolve in this area.
“With an active community of self-aware guests making decisions over social media, it’s hard to keep up with the trends; every hotel is trying to do something unique,” Lam said.
Lam did note that some interesting hotel features he has come across, however, include modular construction, personalized guestroom entertainment and even hotel radio stations.
“I love hotels or hostels that help to democratize travel, while still creating a cool vibe that attracts a savvy guest. Some brands are doing away with the [terrible] minibar altogether in order to create a bigger or better buzz at the lobby bar. I am also seeing Coral Peach replace Millennial Pink as the couleur de rigueur,” Lam said.
Monk highlighted some specific trends as well, naming biophilic design, hotel renovations and transformational design.
“Connect with nature for our well-being by the incorporation of natural light, vegetation, living walls, natural textures, natural materials and nature views into our designs,” she said.
As for hotel renovations, she said that these are on the rise due to changes in global economics and since brand differentiation is essential to maintaining a competitive market edge.
Monk noted that transformational design is “design that changes us, the environment or others. This can range from destination education to philanthropic travel and beyond.”
These trends can help hotels set themselves apart, but all leaders agreed that the real, comprehensive trend lies within a company’s people and their ability to pave the way for future trends and instilling a culture of individuality.
“I hope to see more inclusive design, design that reaches beyond the basics of what is required by law to create democratized design solutions that are beautiful for the full range of human diversity,” Monk said. “In other words, the new exclusivity will become inclusivity.” HB