LAS VEGAS—The 7th Annual Radical Innovation in Hospitality Awards attracted over 70 applicants, and the winner was selected at the Hospitality Design Expo here.
Pop-Up Hotel NY by PinkCloud, an architecture collective founded in Copenhagen by four international designers, took first place. Fabian Busse, Leon Lai, Eric Tan and Nico Schlapps won the award. The design focuses on the transformation of empty Class A office spaces into hospitality spaces. According to the firm, all the parts needed to outfit a hotel for a week is trucked onto site and set up; then, the Pop-Up Hotel website and app is updated to reflect the newest location of the hotel and viral marketing begins. The hotel is taken down after four weeks and the kit of parts moves to the next space. Revenue can be generated and shared amongst the hotel operators and building ownership.
Convergence by Caro Fraser—Caroline Fraser, Flora Olivieri and Luca Valentini—took second place. According to the winners, it was designed to maximize interactions between guests and locals by merging leisure, social and business needs, and removing the barriers of usual functional spaces. The strategy is to host guestrooms and co-working spaces under the same roof, offering increased human connectivity.
Nomad by Jihyoon Yoon and Sae Young Yoon was the second runner up. According to the designers, Nomad is a traveling hotel that starts at the train station where movable suites that resemble train cars use the railway network to reach many locations. When a suite reaches a destination, it is docked into a tray. The suite units are circulated into place via a tray in the station structure, which has spaces for long-term and temporary trays. The station is connected to other transportation systems that are local, and the hotel has permanent service facilities on the ground floor trays, such as a lobby, retail areas, restaurants and gyms.
The student winner was Studio Pod by Michael Burch of the University of Kansas.
Co-founded and produced by The John Hardy Group and Hospitality Design Group, the award was created to promote innovation and global thought leadership. All entries were judged by a panel and scored on concept, design creativity, potential impact on the industry, narrative, graphics and viability. The winner was then selected by a live audience.
Jury members included: Claude Amar, president, The John Hardy Group International; Wing Chao, founding principal, Wing T. Chao Architect; John Hardy, president and CEO, The John Hardy Group; Michael Medzigian, chairman and managing partner, Watermark Capital Partners; Jena Thornton, LEED AP, managing director, Eagle Rock Ventures, LLC; Simon Turner, president, global development, Starwood Hotels Resorts; and James Woods, president and COO, The Bowls, LLC.
