How do you create memorable and engaging hospitality environments? What is your approach to implementing them?

I always begin with the story of a place, ensuring a clear dialogue between the location, the architectural intentions, and the thoughtfully connected interiors. Successful hospitality design relies on a collaborative effort between architects and interior designers to harness the site-specific narrative and destination concept into a cohesive spatial experience. This collaboration is essential for maintaining architectural and design continuity.

The interior context encompasses everything from the surrounding architecture to the views within the space, and distinctive cultural features such as building typologies, spatial details, or elements of historical significance may inform this context. Another narrative element is the selection of materials, whether local, recycled, or with potential for future recyclability. These ecological and sustainability considerations shape both the design narrative and site interaction.

Technology contributes by enabling the creation of site-specific materials and repurposing resources. Excavated rock, for instance, can be crushed and mixed with binding agents to form surface materials or be used as a base for 3D-printed furniture to reintegrate discarded material into the cycle of creativity and functionality. Data on local wind patterns, light conditions, climate, and other environmental factors can also be gathered to inform and guide design decisions.

This holistic approach now dovetails with chatbot technology, which has been quickly and seamlessly absorbed into our daily lives. How are hospitality trends transforming with technology’s acceleration?

At the moment, the application of technology in hotels is limited. Hospitality is closely linked with personal service, which leads to ongoing debate about the balance between human and bot-provided services. Determining this balance is challenging. Currently, technology primarily supports reservation and check-in processes, as well as the operational aspects of hotels, which can include personalized energy consumption where room services are programmed for each guest that, when not in use, can be repurposed to serve energy in other parts of the hotel. The more intriguing possibility lies in using technology to deliver bespoke experiences that transform and enhance hospitality. Luxury is deeply linked to individualized human attention, but suppose luxury could be expressed through personalized care from a human who caters to specific needs and desires via a technology-enabled butler. How could this enhance a stay in a well-designed space even more?

You are becoming an expert in the emerging AI and architecture space. You’ve been involved in discussions about ethics and governance and how architects can integrate AI into their practices. How do you see this new technology moving into and changing the hospitality space?

After the initial scare about AIs replacing work, we see this interaction enhancing our creativity. We can constantly dialogue with AI, like with someone on our team, about developing a concept and a design together. It’s not the designer’s role that changes in this, it’s how we work that does. These new tools enable us to do much more with fewer resources and less time. The architects who don’t use them will feel the difference in their production capacity at some point. This is not to say that this is the only way to approach design and creativity, but it does help to think of AI as a partner.

Moreover, AI-driven technology significantly impacts energy efficiency, material innovation, and data collection for creating site-specific narratives. It also influences client dynamics, altering how we present ideas and inspiring clients to understand a space. By using data to support decisions and AI to enhance our proposals, we can make our work more convincing. However, this can also lead to challenges, as clients might bring AI-generated images of their envisioned project, potentially limiting our creative freedom.

Whole new vistas are opening up around immersive experiences in hospitality. The narrative design creates magical Disney-like activities, where guests can go virtual snorkeling in an underwater world full of creatures that only exist in fantasy.

I see technology embedded in design becoming an integral part of the organism—spaces that breathe data and offer interactive virtual experiences. It surprises me how little architects incorporate these ideas into their designs, concepts gamers consider much more frequently. As architects, we are educated to understand spatial surroundings, yet we may be too grounded in traditional concepts. A space has to be a space; it must conform to gravity and structure, making it challenging for us to imagine the unreal and dream the unknown.

Then there’s Aquellum. How do you think our collaboration—integrating your material choices and interior design with LAVA’s architectural and spatial strategies—will influence broader hospitality trends?

With Aquellum, our teams explored the essence of being inside a mountain, where the entire experience is shaped and elevated by architecture. There is no sky, no horizon—just the immersive space itself. The brief demanded maximum interactive flexibility, allowing the space to evolve and adapt to various uses. Inside this deep, void-like enclosure, where light interacts with the space in unexpected ways, we aimed to craft a powerful experience.

Our solution was to create a consistent framework while incorporating dynamic overlays. The essentials of a functional hotel room—bed, bathroom, intelligent appliances, ventilation, and electricity—are enhanced by ambient effects that add depth and nuance. For instance, water is both a literal element and one that is amplified through technologies that create reflections, movement, and sound, enriching the sensory experience. Beyond private spaces, communal areas such as gardens, clubs, and restaurants form a promenade of boulevards, offering a range of experiences—some calming and tranquil, others more engaging. The grandeur of Aquellum doesn’t rely on majestic sea or mountain views; it resides in the spatial experience it offers.

At the same time, Aquellum seamlessly blends the virtual and the real, playing with senses of space, gravity, and emotion. The virtual is envisioned in various places at different intensities and for diverse purposes. In the privacy of hotel rooms, virtual impressions merge with the physical space, offering an additional layer of escapism. In food and beverage venues and retail spaces, the virtual enables many personalized experiences. It provides collective experiences in curated exhibition spaces and entertainment venues and serves as signage guiding the promenade throughout Aquellum. This virtual dimension is embedded in bespoke materials, such as reflective surfaces that extend the qualities of mountain light deep into the space or others designed to interact with guests that are augmented with virtual effects to enhance sensations of depth, movement, light, sound, and smell—like the LED screen underlayer on micro-perforated natural stone that projects wayfinding information.

I envision a future where the digital and physical worlds in our field become increasingly interconnected and merge into a single, expansive space. Alongside walls, floors, light, and smell, we can create virtual narratives that add new dimensions to the physical world.

How do you think projects like these will transform notions of luxury and approaches to designing experiential spaces for hospitality and living in the future?

Definitions of luxury will always include a level of human interaction. A vast room used to be a benchmark for luxury, but rather than size, the design itself and what is added to enhance the formal experience is setting new benchmarks for luxury.

Much of our future is contained within our phones, apps, and machines, which gives rise to the questions: What does space bring to the experience with your body, and what does a living space mean? Hospitality can be such an exciting program for these questions.

How would you write your brief for an ideal hospitality architecture project where you could take a holiday into the future at a hotel?

One of the most memorable hospitality experiences I’ve had was at a beach hotel in Mexico. There was no electricity, and guests had to shower by candlelight. This experience led me to consider two approaches to answering this question.

The first approach would be a space where everyday activities—such as cooking, sharing food, gardening, and crafting—are removed from their usual context, creating a sense of detachment within a carefully designed, soothing environment. This space could push creative boundaries, challenging our assumptions about form, gravity, perspective, shapes, and materials, offering a psychedelic twist to daily life. The possibilities here are endless.

The second approach would involve a complete digital detox, immersing oneself in a space designed for contemplation. In today’s world, where constant phone stimulation is the norm, this environment would offer a transformative escape from everyday distractions, allowing the power of place and design to foster deep reflection and relaxation.