A handful of new projects are shaking things up in the hotel sphere thanks to this year’s Radical Innovation finalists, which were selected from more than 65 international entries.
Three professional finalists — “Vertical Micro-Climate” by Arno Matis Architecture, “Living the Till” by EoA and Play Design Hotel’s namesake project — were chosen by jury members to compete for the grand prize of $10,000. The finalists will present their concepts to an audience of industry leaders and design experts at the New Museum in New York on October 4, where a live vote will determine the winner. The runner-up will take home $5,000.
Student winner, Brandan Siebrecht of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will receive a $1,500 prize and an opportunity to pursue a scholarship at UNLV to complete his Master’s of Architecture Degree in Hospitality Design. Caspar Schols’ Garden House, of the U.K.-based Architectural Association School of Architecture, will receive an honorable mention.
“Traditionally, the hospitality industry tends to play it safe as a whole,” explains John Hardy, CEO of The John Hardy Group and founder of Radical Innovation. “With Radical, we encourage those to think beyond the conventional and envision what’s to come. Not only is this competition changing the way we view the hotel industry today, but it is paving the way to a bold tomorrow.”
Vertical Micro-Climate Resort by Arno Matis Architecture
“Vertical Micro-Climate” is a mountaintop resort concept set near the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada. The idea is to provide a warm and bright year-round indoor/outdoor tropically inspired environment for guests using natural thermal and solar technology.
Living the Till by EoA
“Living the Till,” meanwhile, is a similarly ecologically minded effort. This treetop hotel resort concept involves a temporary nomadic structure, which allows for seasonal inhabitation in remote areas of the globe. Hovering 30 feet above the forest floor, the imagined structure features a mesh platform supported by a series of cables installed by a team of climbers.
Play Design Hotel by Play Design Hotel
Conceived as an inhabitable design gallery, “Play Design Hotel” functions as both an incubator and living lab for local designers. Interior furnishings, fixtures and accessories selected from local brands that boast cultural significance or interesting narratives are carefully curated in the guest rooms for lodgers to experience firsthand.
Hyperloop Hotel by Brandan Siebrecht
Siebrecht’s concept, dubbed “Hyperloop Hotel,” uses sustainable modular design in the form of shipping containers that double as traveling guest suites. Guests may dock their luxury container at one of 13 designated locales across the United States. The entire experience may be managed via a customized app.
Garden House by Caspar Schols
Student honorable mention, “Garden House” by Caspar Schols, seeks to collapse the boundaries between in- and outdoors by creating a home without the need for artificial climate control through clever novelties such as a steel roof and double-glass insulation.
Central to many of this year’s projects is the theme of sustainability, which speaks to the desire of adventurers to travel in a green fashion. The hope, of course, is that these efforts are as feasible as they are creative, following in the footsteps of 2015 winner Zoku. The hybrid home-work hotel opened in Amsterdam last May.