WATG has taken home the $10,000 grand prize for the Radical Innovation in Hospitality Competition finals via a real-time vote at the 2010 Hospitality Design Exposition & Conference (HD Expo) in Las Vegas.
Co-founded and produced by Hospitality Design Group (HD Group) and the John Hardy Group (JHG), the award promotes innovation and global thought-leadership in hospitality. A jury of industry development experts narrows the entries prior to the live vote, and bestows honorable mentions and student awards.
2010 finalists include:
Project: Aircruise (First runner-up)
Design team: Nick Talbot
Design firm: Seymourpowell
Project: Mosaic (Winner)
Design team: Krystal Solorzano, Karen Mitri, Jerod Costner
Design firm: WATG
Project: Trespass
Design team: Carly Cannell, Jorge Orozco-Cordero, Kevin Estrada, Carmen Cervantes, Daniel Knobloch, Maron Demissie
Design firm: Weetu
About the finalists:
Aircruise
This “clipper in the clouds” offers a glimpse of visionary concept work for Samsung Construction & Trading (Samsung C&T) by Seymourpowell, the London design firm. Aircruise is a giant, vertical airship powered by natural energy, and designed to carry travelers in luxury and style.
Originally a self-generated project, Seymourpowell’s Aircruise conceptualizes design for a hotel in the sky with low passenger numbers and huge internal spaces that offer areas for living, dining, and relaxing, with scope for dramatic and inspirational public spaces. The initial design proposes a bar/lounge zone, four duplex apartments, penthouse, and five smaller apartments. The initial concept captured the imaginations of team members at Samsung C&T, driven by an interest in new materials for building. The firm appointed Seymourpowell to refine the idea. Renewed interest in airships derives from advances in materials, structures, stabilization, and clean propulsion technologies. Cruising times (London to New York in 37 hours) provide travelers an extended luxury hospitality experience in flight.
Mosaic
An outgrowth of a temporary relief shelter, the global Mosaic brand defines and delivers affordable, pop-up hospitality-prefabricated and portable to virtually anywhere. WATG invented Mosaic as entirely flexible, comprised of individually configured, modular Prisms, outfitted as needed as spas, salons, guestrooms, mini-homes (multiple Prisms such as kitchenette and bedrooms), or tented villas (an addition to a luxury resort at peak season). Grouped together, Mosaic Prisms are attached organically to Mosaic Hubs that comprise and contain lobbies, restaurants, bars, lounges, and other amenities.
The Mosaic PATHWAY (Portable Adaptable Temporary Hotel With Alternative You-ses) allows governments, developers, entrepreneurs, hoteliers, private organizations, and charitable aid societies the opportunity to create, design, develop, and implement amazing new hospitality, vacation, housing, emergency shelter, and support structures that are functional, beautiful, simple, and adaptable to numerous situations in almost any geography. The organic, geometric-shaped Prisms of the PATHWAY system are collapsible for ease in transportation, are pre-fitted with built-in fixtures and furnishings, and come with self-contained energy, plumbing, and lighting systems and self-leveling foundations.
WATG’s pop-up concept allows for discovery and adventure in new locations, and provides modular and flexible guest accommodations at existing properties to capture additional peak-season business. For adventure travel and “voluntourism,” hybrid vacation and volunteer work experience, Mosaic Hubs and Prisms accommodate volunteers and then remain as housing for local communities. Mosaic is a trusted global brand, yet offers experiences that can be fresh and flexible.
Trespass
In a nation of instant architecture, we’re left with a plentitude of concrete deserts and big box tombs. Using existing structures, Trespass introduces color and life to interrupt the concrete mirage and inspire a new method for resuscitating dying malls. A new mixed-use concept from the design firm Weetu, Trespass: A Wanderer’s Hotel is all about breaking rules and offering no-fuss, high-touch, healthy, social options for lodging and dining. With mall anchor tenants a dying breed, Trespass anchors struggling community malls, and creates an opportunity to introduce a livelier entity into the equation.
Design components of Trespass include the Central Cell or Hinge, the main axis from parking lot to mall, and home to guest reception, lounges, meeting/event rooms, and gallery space; The Park, an urban-style greenscape for active play and socializing; Caburbans, or suburban cabins, energy-efficient, sustainable, and pre-fabricated modules for dwelling; Picnic Restaurant, a mix of traditional and modern food and farm-fresh offerings; a nature-rich, signature Green Roof; and Living Walls featuring hydroponic plantscapes inside and out.
2010 jury awards include:
Student Honorable Mention
Project: The Energy Hotel
Design: Jessica Lane, student, Abilene Christian University
Judges’ Special Award
Project: Hotel 15
Design: Aleksandra Furman, Manuel Navarro, Ryan Ross, students, Harrington College of Design
Honorable Mention
Project: Ecological Hotel (pictured right)
Design team: Antonio Di Oronzo
Design firm: Bluarch Architecture & Interiors
According to competition co-founder John Hardy, president and CEO of the JHG, “The 2010 Radical Innovation in Hospitality Competition continues to surprise and intrigue our jury and us. The three finalists from Los Angeles, Chicago, and London have submitted very different, but very market-responsive concepts. They also reflect current consumer trends and seek to address major real estate market challenges. All in all, selecting the winner will be very difficult because they are excellent competitors.”
HD Group vice president and competition co-founder Michelle Finn agrees. Says Finn, “The hospitality industry, through innovation and design, has continued to raise the bar on expanding the guest experience and creating new brands that adapt to changing consumer demands. We are very excited about Radical Innovation, which gives you a glimpse of what the future might hold for our industry and the talent that represents this year’s finalists.”
2010 jurors include Claude Amar, president, the John Hardy Group International; John Hardy; Michael Medzigian, chairman and managing partner, Watermark Capital Partners; Jena Thornton, LEED AP, vice president hotels, Kennedy Associates Real Estate Counsel; Simon Turner, president, global development, Starwood Hotels & Resorts; and James Woods, managing partner, Keen Partners.
