Skift Take
These ideas may seem a bit far-fetched for now, but they point to a future where hospitality can take you to places you never expected to be able to stay.
Every year since 2007, The John Hardy Group, a global hospitality development consultancy, has hosted a contest called Radical Innovation, asking for designers and architects around the world to submit their concepts for the hotel of the future.
In past years, ideas have included an undersea resort, an oil rig platform resort and spa, and a co-living/co-working space called Zoku that opened in May. This year’s two finalists borrowed inspiration from drones and city parks to come up with their pitches, both of which will be judged on October 5 before an audience of hotel developers, owners, executives, and designers, who will award a Grand Prize of $10,000 to the winner.
If there were a shared theme between the two finalists it would be mobility. Both designs — Driftscape and Nesting — present a hotel that can be placed, well, almost anywhere really, allowing for people to have unique interactions with their surroundings. Here’s a closer look.
Drone-Driven Driftscape
Toronto-based HOK, which has worked on such hotels including the Lotte New York Palace Hotel’s Jewel Suite and the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., submitted an idea for what it described as “a mobile, self-sustaining hotel that, through the use of drone technology, allows guests to roam or touch down in diverse locations that were previously unattainable at traditional ho
