Molecular gastronomy, energy recharge, eco-sustainability… also on two wheels,
new squares, design on display and many new functions open to the city,
in the projects by the Italian and foreign designers attending
Hotel Experience Design - Lounge, Bar, Lobby & Exteriors
by POLI.design – Consortium of Politecnico di Milano,
the post-graduate course, already at its third edition,
dedicated to hotel common spaces.
The new hotels open to the city and its inhabitants, and in the projects by the Italian and foreign architects and designers who attended the third edition of “Hotel Experience Design - Lounge, Bar, Lobby & Garden, Course of design for the hospitality spaces” by POLI.design – Consortium of Politecnico di Milano, they are enrichened with innovative functions and offers targeted at an enlarged clientele attentive to new trends. The topics that inspired the works of the 20 selected designers include molecular gastronomy, as the foremost trend in terms of food and wellbeing, energy recharging like a car fuelling up, eco-sustainability also… on two wheels, design, technological and cultural innovation, and much more.
A professional specialisation focussing on Hotel common areas
Hotel Experience Design - Lounge, Bar, Lobby & Exteriors, Course of design for the hospitality spaces”, is the new specialisation to innovatively design and plan hotel common areas, which today show the new evolving relevant trends in the hospitality sector.
In fact hotel common areas, the Lounge, Bar and Lobby as well as the interior gardens, more and more often host new functions different from the traditional ones, and become all-purpose spaces that offer services and entertainment also to the outer “urban” clientele.
Hotels are rethought and redesigned not only for a more demanding and conscious clientele, but also for the urban customers, the city, thus becoming innovative venues and poles of attraction, taste, new proposals, stimuli and entertainment. This evolution requires designers with updated professional know-how, conscious of the new market’s demands both in terms of aesthetics and functionality.
For these reasons POLI.design – Consortium of Politecnico di Milano organises the annual course in “Hotel Experience Design – Design for the hospitality spaces”, which includes lessons held by Politecnico di Milano lecturers and professionals specialised in different fields, to deal with all aspects involved in space planning: design, use of innovative materials, furniture, sound and lighting technologies, chromatic choices.
“The course is meant for Italian and foreign architects and designers interested in specialising in this important professional sector. The common areas are today changing – explains Francesco Scullica, lecturer and co-director of the course along with Giuliano Simonelli, – not only because they express a strong vocation to entertainment as it happened in the past, but because now the spaces become multipurpose and host functions that are ‘vital’ for the whole structure. They are big stages with technological, furnishing and lighting components, and are ‘communicative’ spaces that must always ‘welcome’ and ‘entertain’. Their planning is complex and the designers may produce innovative ‘concepts’ of interior design, also in relation to the new services and ways of fruition”.
Lessons, guided tours and a final Project Work on a building by Giò Ponti
The course in “Hotel Experience Design – Lounge Bar Lobby & Exteriors” - third edition, took place from May 5th to June 24th.
At the end of 220 hours of lessons by Politecnico di Milano lecturers and specialised architects such as Marina Baracs - LTW, Daniele Beretta, Simone Micheli, Marco Piva and Luca Scacchetti, and guided educational tours to the most relevant realisations, the attendees have dealt with the final Project work under the supervision of lecturers Andrea Manfredi and Marina Monteforte. It consisted in the virtual refurbishment of the ground floor of Palace Montecatini designed by Giò Ponti in Milan in 1951, and now seat of Radio Monte Carlo, the partner radio of the course. The space was to be transformed into the lobby, lounge, bar and garden, and more, of a hotel of new conception.
Four “international” teams of designers
The designers, who came also from Bulgaria, Brazil, Greece and Spain, developed the following concepts: “Plug&Play” by team Auf, “T Hotel” by Etta design, “Eco-Cycle Hotel” by 4 Elements, and “Ferran Adrià Hotel” by Toss-up.
The concepts can be viewed at www.hotelexperiencedesign.it in “Projects”.
Click here to view all the projects of the third edition
PLUGandPLAY_energy hotel by Funffrauen[auf]derstrasse
(Duccio Maria Gambi, Roberta Marcaccio, Caterina Marazzi, Marianna Mele, Beatrice Pernigotti)
PLUGandPLAY_energy hotel is in the centre of Milan and is meant for a target group of different people who have in common the need to recharge after the daily activities.
The project revolves around the topic of energy, which is linked to the history of the Palace Montecatini, a building designed by Giò Ponti to host Group Montedison. The energy is delivered in different forms: energy for the body in the form of food and drinks, spaces for physical activity and pranotherapeutic treatments, physiotherapy, reflexology, vibrational medicine; energy for the mind, such as information on the city, pod-cast, topical books; and as electrical energy to recharge the different personal electronic devices.
Also the price for a room varies depending on the quality of energy consumed during the stay which is registered by an USB pen.
The hotel hosts restaurant, bar, spa, city info point, pod-cast, plug&play of electric energy, books and newspapers corner.
In the aesthetics the restaurant shows the studies on ceramics done by Gio Ponti, reinterpreted in Casamood by Florim.
The furniture, the graphics and the distribution ways ironically revisit the topic of the “gas station attendant” with a very topical parallelism between food and black gold that is given by the relation between biofuels and the price of cereals.
Food is presented as new gold on display in an innovative tableware system that let compose the dinner like a game.
The Spa is open to the outer public and is divided into two areas: the ground floor is for downloading energy while the underground floor is to receive energy and recharge. On the ground floor water is dynamic thanks to the whirlpool baths “Virginia Experience” by Jacuzzi, while it is static in the inferior floor where a big swimming pool receives zenith light from the skylights on the exteriors. The ground floor hosts the entrance, the changing rooms and a gym where the equipment, thanks to a dynamo-like plant, reuse the energy produced by the users by transforming it into electricity for the entire structure. The underground floor hosts also fitting rooms for energetic treatments: pranotherapy, physiotherapy, reflexology, vibrational medicine.
At the bar, cocktails are served by dispensers shaped like fuel pistols. Beside the space where food and drinks are consumed there is a plug and play area with a wall equipped with all the existing kinds of sockets, thanks to modules of perforated tiles of new conception that contain all the wiring. The inner court has a glass roof and hosts a reading room with books and magazines and touch screens equipped with earphones and USB plugs to download and create playlists directly from the podcasts of Radio Monte Carlo, Virgin Radio and Radio 105, the radio studios present in the building.
In the restroom the sanitaryware is by Simas, collection Flow, with design by Terri Pecora, and the faucets by ST Rubinetterie, that presents a new concept of mixer tap in the collection Icon that includes a meter with digital display showing the supplied amount of water.
click here to view all the projects of the third edition
T-HOTEL by ETTA Design
(Agnese Balestrini, Sara Battistini, Benedetto Li Volsi, Hudesa Kaganow, Mauro Mior)
The historical palace Montecatini hosts the new T-Hotel, a structure featuring in its innovative hospitality spaces the spirit and brand of the traditional Triennale design museum of Milan.
This hotel is meant not only for a clientele involved in design, but also for people interested in participating in the cultural scenario by putting in contact designers and manufacturers. The structure has been devised to “take the city” and its cultural opportunities inside the hotel.
This space is located in a well connected area which is the economical core of the city, and is meant to transform the traditional hospitality systems reinventing its functions in order to reflect the values of cultural innovation and entertainment of La Triennale and its fundamental principles, namely technological innovation, flexibility of the spaces and the practicality of the services.
The hotel has two entrances placed at the end of the two main axes that cut through the building and let the customers move around freely inside the hospitality spaces.
Inside, the courTyard with an informal summer bar is an outdoor multipurpose space connecting the city to some of the hotel’s services, while, overlooking on Largo Donegani, there is MostraT: a creative lounge, cafeteria and bar-à-book where emerging designers and artists can exhibit their works by means of rented personal displayers. The letter T, the main coloured sign recalling the brand, is realised in red concrete framed glass blocks by Seves.
An isle of the building hosts the multipurpose business area called MeeTing that can be divided by means of a system of folding sliding panels that disappear inside the pillars and are covered with De Castelli Cor-Ten steel, to create offices, meeting rooms and also spaces for exhibitions and entertainment. Handles are by Frascio, model Siena, and have been modified to be rollaway.
The other isle hosts the restaurant TMangio, an environment of great flexibility thanks to a system of modular tables that are mounted on a track for the highest range of services choice and number of persons seated. The false ceiling over the tables is decorated and lighted by custom-made modules of the model Mariposa by La Murrina and is has been lowered on purpose to facilitate the use of Bose sound systems and Oikos Frangrances perfume dispensers.
Where the two building axes cross there is the Reception that offers also information on Milan cultural events by means on an accurate multimedia system.
All restrooms include waterfall faucets of the collection Icon by ST, and sanitaryware Frozen by Simas. The polished concrete floors have porcelain inserts of the collection Glam Wood by Rex. Most of the furniture has been designed by Gran Etta Design.
The main colours are white and red, and thanks to the choice for the neutral hues given by the use of iron, wood, stone and concrete in their natural state, the temporary exhibitions, furnishings and guests become the protagonists of this urban setting.
click here to view all the projects of the third edition
“ECO-CYCLE HOTEL” by 4 Elements
(Alessandra Bertolini, Rosanna Cicolella, Leticia Barreiro Crestani, Xeni-Aikaterini Skampaviria)
In view of Expo 2015, Eco-cycle Hotel is an attempt to meet the hotel’s need of offering quality at low prices in the centre of Milan. It is a modern and informal 3-star hotel out of the schemes, targeted at a “young minded” clientele not looking for luxury but in search for an authentic quality of the services. The hotel aims at being eco-sustainable, it is concerned about energetic waste, and includes recyclable materials, a photovoltaic system, the recycling of rainwater and similar solutions. It includes multisensory spaces to free the customers from the urban stress and enhance the contact with nature. The city and location are in fact set in a context full of natural cues: on a large scale it is easy to reach by train the lakes, the Ticino park and the Oltrepo Pavese area: on a smaller scale, the Naviglio canal and urban parks can be easily reached by bicycle.
The inner court of the hotel opens to the city by offering a new urban square: the Season-Cycle Garden, which is a venue for socialisation with bicycle path, furnished with De Castelli pots in Cor-Ten iron treated with beeswax, and is placed in the centre of the hotel around which all the activities revolve.
Inside the building there are two areas that are continuously made visible by glazed galleries: one is reserved exclusively to the guests, the other is open to everybody. The first hosts the check-in, a take-away service with a Bocchini Contract gastronomy counter, and the Relax-Cycle Area, where it is possible to use sport equipment, treadmills with monitor, and discover the territory by means of virtual itineraries made more real by Bose sound systems and Oikos Fragrances dispensers, which reproduce sounds and smells typical of the involved areas. The virtual experience may become real by renting the bicycles in the Bi-Cycle Rent.
The second area is characterised by two functional spaces: a commercial one is dedicated to selling organic products and articled realised with recycled materials, the other is reserved to the restaurant. The Vicious-Cycle Restaurant is at the same time a lounge area characterised by a two-faced open fireplace by Stûv, and restaurant with cuisine based on local and in season products. The style is informal: pouffes are gathered around the element water, here represented by washbasins in stone with faucets Icon by ST, where to wash hands after dinner, which is exclusively served as fingerfood.
The restrooms in this area host sanitaryware Bohemièn by Simas that show the organic shapes characterising the space. The coverings in ceramics Floor Gres Ecotech well correspond to the ecological line of the project. The handles Fascio complete the doors which are covered with blow-ups of drops falling into the water, thus creating visual games.
click here to view all the projects of the third edition
“Ferran Adrià Hotel” by oss-up
(Maria Claudia Capinera, Marina La Pira, Pilar Olivares Giner, Marta Stella)
The Ferran Adrià Hotel, which is named after the famous Catalan chef inventor of the molecular cuisine, is meant for an adult clientele looking for innovation and creativity. The project focuses on taste and tactile sensations, and the constant stimulus of the five senses.
It is a changing space offering different experiences at each hour of the day, it is refined but also conceived as an alternative to the quick lunch break.
It is composed of different areas including a lounge and reception area without counter where the customers are welcomed for the check-in comfortably seated on couches, with sheet metal screens by De Castelli. The two-faced fireplace by Stûv can be enjoyed both inside and outside.
The restaurant is a prestigious venue built on a platform over the water with Florim floors, where the chef proposes innovative dishes recalling the molecular gastronomy by Ferran Adrià, a scientific discipline that studies the changes of food during cooking and which is aimed at transforming cooking into an actual science. For Adrià his goal was “creating a unexpected contrast of tastes, temperatures and colours. Nothing is what is seems. The idea is to provoke, surprise, delight”.
The kitchen is visible in order to admire the cooks in their creative activities. The connection spaces between the kitchen and the restrooms are made of glass bricks by Seves.
A cocktail bar overlooks the garden with citrus trees, and during summertime is open also to the outer clientele, while the breakfast bar is reserved only to the hotel guests.
A big Arena designed like an auditorium hosts courses of gastronomy with lessons held by chefs coming from all over the world, conferences, tastings and events. A big metal pylon holds Bose sound system and the spots that light the steel counter by De Castelli.
In the restrooms washbasins are by Simas and faucets by ST.
Each floor of the hotel has its own Spa where wellness treatments include the ingredients chosen by Ferran Adrià for its recipes.
The main colours are brown, white and beige Cor-Ten steel for the restaurant, light and white wood for the bar, and green, sage green and beige with strong chromatic contrasts for the Arena.
click here to view all the projects of the third edition
The Partners of Hotel Experience Design
The Academic Partner of the course is the trade show SIA GUEST’08 – International Hospitality Trade Show (Rimini Fiera, November 22-25, 2008) that will host a multimedia exhibition of the projects developed within the course.
SIA GUEST’08 and the Academic Sponsors: Florim Ceramiche, Simas Aqua Space, La Murrina, Bose, ST, De Castelli, Frascio, Bocchini Contract, Stûv and Oikos Fragrances have offered study grants to the selected designers.
In May 2009 the fourth edition of Hotel Experience Design
The fourth edition of the course, which is reserved to 25 Italian and foreign designers, is scheduled from May 4th to June 24th, 2009 at POLI.design – Consortium of Politecnico di Milano, and includes 220 hours of lessons with a final project work finale and education tours to the most innovative hotels in Milan.
For information: POLI.design, Daiana Bossi, Via Durando 38/a, 20158 Milan, Italy
tel +39 02 23997208 formazione@polidesign.net www.hotelexperiencedesign.it
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