Pent up demand in the hospitality industry has rekindled businesses as lockdowns are incrementally loosened. While the pandemic has brought about along a fair share of requirements in social distancing and increased cleaning standards, the hospitality sector has demonstrated agility and resilience in its approach toward embracing change.
In this episode of the Gensler Design Podcast, our Host David Calkins, Regional Managing Principal of Gensler APME, together with his guest, Diane Thorsen, Gensler's Middle East and Asia Pacific Hospitality Practice Area Leader and Design Director discusses the inevitable changes to the future look of hospitality design and how the industry has gone about regaining consumer trust along with the even more important theme of adapting to the shifting values of their future customers.
How has the Landscape Shifted in terms of Architecture and Design Priorities?
Over the last couple of years, there had been a shift of working styles, where people often choose to work in hospitality-inspired spaces, rather than typical offices. These spaces help people be more relaxed and enjoy the freedom of being able to choose where and how they work. It might be sitting on the sofa, it might be at a café, it might be at a high table. Since movement is one of the key components for our wellbeing and so the choice of spaces is becoming a solution that has almost influenced how we see both hospitality and workplace. Increasing, the crossover between workplace taking inspiration from hospitality, and vice versa of hospitality spaces leveraging on the opportunities to equip their space for work.
With the Integration of Work Space and Hospitality, to what extent is Health and Wellness being Incorporated Within Hospitality Spaces?
With health safety and personal responsibility on the rise, we're seeing an increase in wellness tourism travel associated with the pursuit of maintaining or enhancing one's personal well-being. Hotels are proactively placing wellness as a priority and making it part of the experience, not just an add-on. In addition to the wellness aspect is also the concept of resilient design. Resilience and the health focus design trend are connected and there are increased appetite for improved wellness.
This changed the approach to the guest rooms in particular because the wellness element needs to be integrated into the each room, including details such as having the right temperature, air filtration for the healthiest air possible, having the right acoustics and lighting, which all improves sleep quality. These are key to the well-being and health of guests and these aspects are being dealt and looked at carefully.
Does Personal Well-Being and Environmental Well-Being Go Hand in Hand?
Hotel guests want to ensure that their stay doesn't have a negative impact on the planet and just in the same way as they don't want to have a negative impact on their own health. Hotels really have to find the right way to address this concern and understand and consider how their own operation will be impacted.
If we look at the emission of the greenhouse gases which is really one of the main causes of global warming, accelerating climate action in tourism is really one of the key important factors for the resilience of the sector. This is an opportunity for us as architects and designers to really take onboard every aspect of design and look extremely careful at how we actually impact the built environments.
In particular, ecotourism is really growing in popularity because of the awareness of the negative impacts that tourism has on the destination at the natural environment. The loss of biodiversity and the effects of climate changes , which scientists have blamed, not only on the tourism industry but also the traveling consumers. Beyond the government, environmentalists and conservationists, consumers do have a responsibility, and developers should also be looking carefully at sustainability and the impact of the development and invite designers & architects, as well as encourage guests to participate in the solution.
Listen to the full conversation on the Gensler Design Podcast. Thanks for tuning in!