HOK’s Toronto office took home the top $10,000 prize at the 10th annual Radical Innovation Awards, held earlier this week at New York’s New Museum. The event is co-produced by the John Hardy Group and founding sponsor Global Allies, and moderated by Tara Mastrelli, president of Studio Tano with 2016 Radical Innovation Award designer Chris Hardy.
The awards were selected by a panel of industry jurors: Michael Medzigian, Carey Watermark Investors; Jena Thornton, Eagle Rock Ventures; Simon Turner, Starwood Hotels; James Woods, the Bowls; Wing T. Chao, Wing T. Chao Architect; and Claude Amar, the John Hardy Group.
Inspired by wanderlust, HOK’s winning project, Driftscape, is a self-sustaining mobile hotel that affords guests the chance to experience a diverse range of otherwise unattainable hotel locations through drone technology. Featuring an autonomous, two-person guestroom pod (Driftcraft) and the amenity base (Oasis), the model is designed to support untethered excursions of up to three days.
“Driftscape meets growing market demand for authentic, immersive experiences with a concept that is entirely new and original,” says John Hardy, CEO of the John Hardy Group and founder of Radical Innovation. “The audience was won over not only by the romance of the idea, but the amount of research supporting its feasibility.”
Nanterre, France-based MM Architects Designers & Planners was named this year’s $5,000 Professional Runner-Up for its design Nesting. Reimagining the utility of urban parks and green spaces, the concept aims to facilitate a partnership between private and public entities in order to develop a modular, multifunctional structure easily integrated into urban and green spaces.
A student award of $1,500 was also presented to Juan Orduz, a master of architecture student from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, who won for his Space View Inn proposal. The plan maximizes the role of the hospitality industry in private space development by envisioning a spacecraft capable of supporting up to 64 guests for leisure and hospitality activities.
Additional event support was provided by official partner Sleeper magazine, media partner Architizer, UNLV School of Architecture, Collins Brothers Worldwide, AccorHotels, Beyer Brown, Son&Sons, DFL Legal, Hospitality Logistics International, and Martin Stringfellow Associates.
