FUTURISTIC ARK HOTEL WINS

2011 RADICAL INNOVATION IN HOSPITALITY GRAND PRIZE

Finalists hail from Moscow, Warsaw, and Los Angeles

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (May 20, 2011)—Alexander Remizov of Remistudio (Moscow) won the $10,000 grand prize in the Fifth Annual HD/JHG Radical Innovation in Hospitality Competition for The Ark Hotel. Presentations and audience voting on three finalists—The Ark; Mediance Hotel by Raphael Delstanche (Warsaw); and Immersion Hotel by Kay Lang + Associates (Los Angeles)—took place here at the 2011 Hospitality Design Exposition & Conference, the global trade exposition and conference for the hospitality design industry. Kay Lang + Associates took runner-up honors. Student winner Laura Carwardine (Ryerson University, Toronto) accepted the Judges’ Special Award for her 4D cube airport lodging concept.

The Ark concept addresses two key challenges of hospitality and tourism architecture, according to Remizov: “The first one is maintenance of security and precautions against extreme environmental conditions and climate changes. The second one: protection of natural environment from human activities.” A green hotel, The Ark creates power independently and, therefore, is off the grid; and it has the capacity to be a land-based or water-based hotel.

Five years ago, the John Hardy Group (JHG) and Hospitality Design magazine (HD) joined forces with the goal of honoring leading-edge ideas in the marketplace. Today, the competition is the industry’s gold standard for radical thinking. “Our ultimate goal is to improve the industry—to discover lots of new ideas, new trends, and people,” says John Hardy, president and CEO, JHG, who co-founded the competition with HD. “My goal was to find the next real innovator.”

Entries for the 2011 competition were at an all-time high. Open to anyone with an innovative idea for hospitality, competition entries are narrowed by an industry jury featuring experts in hospitality development, investment, design, and operations, including: Claude Amar, managing director international, The John Hardy Group; 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, senior vice president, Bentall Kennedy (U.S.) LP; Simon Turner, president, global development, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and James Woods, managing partner, Keen Partners.

HD/JHG Radical Innovation in Hospitality Award is presented in partnership with sponsor Global Allies. “We have a responsibility to look beyond where we are now, and to what we need to become tomorrow,” explains David Cine, president, Global Allies.

“This is a watershed year—five years for the competition,” claims Hardy, who wants to see radical thinking take the industry beyond mainstream boutique hotels. “In our own small way I think we have improved the industry, but we’re not there yet.”

COMPETITION WINNER AND FINALISTS, CONCEPTS IN BRIEF

COMPETITION WINNER: $10,000 PRIZE

The Ark Hotel DESIGN Alexander Remizov, Remistudio

THE CONCEPT / NARRATIVE

For contemporary architecture two aspects are of the highest concern: the first one is maintenance of security and precautions against extreme environmental conditions and climate changes. The second one: protection of natural environment from human activities. The Ark Hotel makes an attempt to answer these challenges of our time. This Ark Hotel can be built quickly after natural disasters or rising of sea level for temporary accommodation of victims—because the building may hold onto the water surface protected from earthquakes, and consumes energy, which itself produces. The Ark Hotel is a green hotel. The independent-from-power-networks building can be constructed in the most beautiful and previously inaccessible places, including the water surface, while respecting the environment. Autonomy from the existing infrastructure should create unique opportunities for guests—to live in comfort and safety in wild nature or drifting over the water, watching the changing landscape around them.

COMPETITION RUNNER-UP: $1,500 PRIZE

Immersion Hotel  DESIGN Kay Lang + Associates

THE CONCEPT / NARRATIVE

A smart, interactive, environmentally sensitive guest controlled resort, this hotel concept changes the centuries-old relationship of host and guest as well as the very act of being hospitable. The radically smarter and more connected hotel promises to fundamentally transform the way guests are received, entertained, and provided for. The Immersion is a hotel for the social networking era. It affords the tools that allow guests to form their own personalized community or pop-up social network. It is safe, easy to use, and entertaining. It addresses the traveler’s desire to experience the hotel’s design and its locale in a deeper, more personally meaningful way. Through access to specific cultural and locale data, social network recommendations, and user reviews, a guest can come to understand a destination in a way that has never before been possible. The guest is transformed from disengaged tourist to a fully immersed, affianced visitor.

COMPETITION FINALIST

Mediance Hotel DESIGN Raphael Delstanche

THE CONCEPT / NARRATIVE

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides regular reports on the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of human induced climate change, potential impacts of climate change, and options for mitigation and adaptation since we often fail to consider change until we see—and deeply, emotionally feel—just what’s at stake. Based on IPCC reports, Mediance Hotel is an initiative to allow tourists to experience the impact of global warming first hand, provide those visitors with opportunities, understand the causes and consequences of climate change, eventually exchange knowledge and share initiatives, raise awareness and stimulate action from personal day-to-day habits to political activism, and to help preserve the precious beauty of this world we live in.

STUDENT WINNER: JUDGES’ SPECIAL AWARD: $1,500 PRIZE

4D cube DESIGN Laura Carwardine

THE CONCEPT / NARRATIVE

4D cube is a short-stay airport hotel designed for ultimate customization. This automated hotel will assemble rooms according to guest preferences on an available floor. All rooms are serviced out of sight on the ground floor, and are stored on the second floor when not in use. 4D cube is ideal for air travelers who have passed through security and are awaiting their flight. These modern nomads expect convenience, customization, and memorable experiences. 4D cube hotels will be located at a gate at all major international airports. Each gate will include the custom 4D cube vending machines and a permanent flight bridge will be constructed for hotel access. 4D cube will be launched at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

PREVIOUS RADICAL INNOVATION IN HOSPITALITY WINNERS

Previous Radical Innovation in Hospitality winners include:

2007: Poseidon Undersea Resort concept, to be built underwater near Fiji;

2008: Oil Rig Platform and Spa, the conceptual reuse of abandoned oil rigs as full-service resorts;

2009: Pixel Hotel in Linz, Austria, decentralized guest suites (on a tugboat, in a gallery) with mobile operations;

2010: Mosaic, a portable, modular concept that provides peak-season lodging, low-eco-impact hospitality, or pop-up luxury accommodations.

About Hospitality Design Exposition & Conference

Hospitality Design Exposition & Conference is presented by Hospitality Design magazine and produced by the Hospitality Design Group, part of Nielsen Expositions. The event is in produced in association with: International Interior Design Association (IIDA); International Society of Hospitality Purchasers (ISHP), National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ); American Society of Interior Designers (ASID); and NEWH, Inc.—The Hospitality Industry Network.