This week, one of our favorite design competitions will hold its signature annual event. The 2019 Radical Innovation Awards gathers together the brightest, most innovative concepts in hospitality design – then places three finalists onstage at the New Museum in New York City to present their concepts to a live audience who will vote that very night to determine a grand-prize winner of $10,000 and a runner-up prize of $5,000.
In its own words, Radical Innovation, hosted by hospitality consultancy The John Hardy Group, is “a competition and year-round community that challenges designers, hoteliers, and students to pioneer compelling ideas in travel and hospitality…Since its founding, Radical Innovation has awarded over $150,000 to progressive architectural and hospitality-minded thinkers.”
Entrants work for months to solidify their concepts, and three top entries then head to New York for an electrifying night of presentation.
From the Radical Innovation event announcement: “Finalists were selected by a jury of hospitality and design experts: Claude Amar, Managing Director, The Hardy Group International; Wing T. Chao, Founder, Wing T. Chao Global Advisors; John Hardy, President/CEO, The Hardy Group; Michael Medzigian, Chairman & Managing Partner, Watermark Capital Partners, LLC; Jena Thornton, Principal, Hospitality, Kinzer Partners; Simon Turner, Managing Director, Alpha Lodging Partners, LLC; and James Woods, WeWork. The Radical Innovation jury selected the finalists based on creativity and design, as well as their potential feasibility and ability to impact the industry. Three professional finalists were chosen from an impressive selection of nearly 50 entries submitted from more than 20 countries.”
“In addition to the three professional finalists, the jury selected one student submission from among the many entries. This year’s student winner is Rooftop Hotel Gardens by Ruslan Mannapov and Airat Zaidullin from Kazan State University of Architecture and Engineering (KSUAE) in Russia. They will both be invited to join the professional finalists on-stage at the New Museum to present this unique spatial hospitality concept. They will also receive a $1,500 cash prize and the opportunity to pursue a graduate assistantship in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, provided by long-time Radical Innovation supporter UNLV. The total two-year value is estimated at more than $50,000.”
Last week, we interviewed each of the three professional firm finalists about their concepts, in advance of the live pitch presentation. Below, check out their ideas, as well as those of the winning student concept and two honorable mentions.
The Radical Innovation Awards event will take place October 16 at the New Museum in New York City.
2019 PROFESSIONAL FINALISTS
Infinite Explorer | SB Architects | San Francisco
“Infinite Explorer is a hospitality concept that helps travelers connect with remote destinations using the American West’s defunct passenger rail lines that now span the nation. What were once bustling railways are now silent and forgotten vestiges of our past. Many of these railways span untapped, truly breathtaking locations, but provide no footing for hospitality development. The Infinite Explorer provides a unique opportunity to embrace and transform the existing infrastructure of these underutilized spaces, making the unreachable, reachable. Train travelers usually only capture a glimpse of the immense beauty that passes by outside their window, but imagine if you could step out of your cabin into the wilderness to feel, touch, and smell it? Each stop along the route is unique and designed with an immersive program of activity, including outdoor adventures, wellness and dining; designed to astound, delight and capture the guest’s imagination at every turn. The Infinite Explorer is a one-of-a-kind hospitality experience. One train, infinite possibilities.”
Notes from the SB Architects team:
“We’re addressing the notion of hyper-localization in travel – something that makes you feel like you’re a part of the place you’re visiting. We also wanted to shift the focus to not just the destination, but also the journey itself, and fusing those two together.” – Matt Page, Vice President and Principal
“Infinite Explorer focuses on taking advantage of what’s around us. We wanted to move to a new level of adaptive reuse, as people become more aware of their footprint around the earth.” – Krystal Solorzano, Director of Marketing and Business Development
“Some hospitality brands are starting to look at this, such as Autocamp and the Belmond/Orient express, but it’s still a pause between two destinations – ‘A’ and ‘B’. We wanted to take those efforts to a completely new level. And we thought about this in the context of the huge uptick that is happening in people wanting to explore their natural surroundings through travel, and the uptick in natural park attendance. This concept takes people outdoors and enables them to connect with nature on an entirely new level – an experience that is currently unobtainable.” – Krystal Solorzano, Director of Marketing and Business Development
“The existing infrastructure is an important baseline for this – train lines like this exist all over the globe, so it’s an attainable idea. We were looking at existing services like Airbnb, where the infrastructure of great bars and restaurants and scenery is often already all around you. Our country’s old railroad lines have been underutilized for decades now, and these lines cut through some of the most amazing locations around the country. Infinite Explorer is not just about point ‘A’ to ‘B’ to ‘C’; it’s the seamless transition among all points and the journeys in between.” – Matt Page, Vice President and Principal
“We thought it was important to be light on the land and light on infrastructure when developing the platforms needed for the concept. We want to be sustainable, and we don’t want to add too much more to an already captivating landscape.” – Shaun Poon, Designer
“There’s a sense of nostalgia that we’re tapping into, but it’s also a way to create a shared, multi-generation, multi-demographic type of travel – a new type of hospitality.” – Matt Page, Vice President and Principal
Volumetric High-Rise Modular Hotel | Danny Forster & Architecture | New York
“This Volumetric High-Rise Modular Hotel will be the world’s tallest modular hotel and one of the most stylish, combining modular efficiency with architectural flair. AC by Marriott at 842 6th Avenue, New York City, will be the tallest modular hotel in the world when it opens in early 2020. But it won’t just be a step up for modular design, it will be a step forward. The building leverages the advantages of modular construction, uses cutting-edge proprietary technology to address potential drawbacks, and, most importantly, put to rest the idea that a modular building can only be the sum of its factory-made parts. It’s stylish and architecturally expressive. And yes, 80 percent of the building’s square footage will be shipped in – precisely constructed and complete down to the curtains, TV, sconce and even art – from a factory in Poland. The perfect marriage of modular construction and inventive architectural design, this Manhattan AC points the way to the future by using accelerated design processes through VR software and off-site quality control to streamline the building process for builders anywhere in the world. DF&A and its tech partner patented a “Time Machine” technology that trains 3D cameras on each module at five different points in the construction process, so that clients, contractors, and architects can keep an eye on what’s being built.”
“Furthermore, this technology syncs those images to the VR plans, which means off-site stakeholders and on-site factory workers can compare what a module looks like at a particular stage to what it should look like.”
Notes from Danny Forster, of Danny Forster & Architecture:
“This hotel project was a really strong candidate to test out modular; it had all the attributes to make it the perfect testing ground. We focused less on the specifics of this project and more on trying to innovate the process of how you do a modular building. There’s nothing new about modular, but it doesn’t happen at this scale in the U.S. We wanted to use technology to take down some of the barriers of doing buildings like this here in the States.”
”We focused on two areas. First, speed. We wanted to turn the modular design process on its head – designing the base building and crafting interior details, like selecting finishes and drapery, at the same time. Imagine flying around the hotel room in VR, and every single thing is specified and labeled with costing data. We developed a VR tool that allows everyone to get on the same page right away. You can know extremely early in the process what everything will cost.”
“The second thing we wanted to address was geography. Often the construction site and the manufacturing are located in different regions. Our construction site is in New York, and the manufacturing for the rooms is in Poland. At five stages of the construction process, we devised a plan so that the manufacturer and other parties can actually see what’s going on at the site. The manufacturer often has a broader connection, and the technology is so good for architecture and design, but sometimes you lose the craft. The tool we developed helps bring the manufacturer closer to the project.”
“And I wanted to make something elegant. We wanted to take away the cheapened reputation of modular. When you look at this building, you have no idea it’s modular. This is a modern form of modular.”
Connectic | Cooper Carry | New York
“Connectic employs modular construction techniques to fill underutilized spaces by way of collapsible, modular units that are flexible and adaptable to respond to variety of environments. This concept could be used to build a pop-up hotel in remote area or to help solve problems of space and density in urban cores. Interstitial spaces between buildings, parking lots, forgotten pocket parks, and above buildings offer an opportunity for hotels of the future to use Connectic’s model to increase volume of available keys and amenities and connect neglected spaces to existing hotels. This would become an aggregation that can swell and shrink as needed. A collective of modules that are at once collapsible and reusable. Conflating multiple revenue streams into a single solution. And, a kinematic proposal to temporary events.”
The module frame is made of carbon fiber, selected for its light weight and strength. ETFE panels, also lightweight, are used for glazing.
Notes from the Cooper Carry team:
“A lot of the ideas our team was generating when we first began working on this down centered around trying to create something temporary, around cities that have fluctuating needs in hospitality. We wanted to offer a response to the needs we see in the hospitality industry today.” – Allison
“We wanted to create something with extreme flexibility and portability, that could be removed from a site when it’s no longer needed. And we wanted it to be visually appealing as well.” – Ben Gholson, Senior Associate
“The need for hotel rooms is in flux at certain times of the year for many cities. Hotels are often planned and built around the understanding that they will be booked out years in advance for specific events. We wanted to provide a solution for that fluctuation.” – Vinnie Yee, Project Architect
“We also wanted to respond to a new, different type of traveler – people who have embraced Airbnb and who want to stay somewhere unique. We wanted to provide a lot of viewing out of the room to create something totally unique.” – Allison Clark, Project Architect
“The modular are completely self-supporting. And more than a box shape would, the geometric shape of the modules lends itself to connecting them in interesting ways.” – Ben Gholson, Senior Associate
“One component of the design we wanted to focus on was the process of aggregating the modules together. We used a program to create the geometry around how they fit together, and an algorithm determines the circulation path the modules follow as we design it.” – Abaan Ali, Designer II
2019 STUDENT WINNER
Rooftop Hotel Gardens | Ruslan Mannapov and Airat Zaidullin | Kazan State University of Architecture and Engineering (KSUAE) | Russia
“Rooftop Hotel Gardens offers a hotel concept placeable in any city that gives guests a chance to experience skyline of cities in an isolated peaceful space fully merged with an urban environment. The conceptual hotel chain provides locations on rooftops and services throughout the city. Each guest can reserve a room on the open roof of any participating building. Thanks to a network throughout the city, if guests want, they have the opportunity to change place and module during the entire period of their stay.”
2019 STUDENT HONORABLE MENTIONS
Revo |Michał Witalis | Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow | Poland
“Revo is a concept of an active hotel room deployment system that acts as a global network of services for travelers. From now on you are able to book your stay anywhere around the world. The building is no longer a limitation. The cabin can be delivered to your desired spot by a local supplier from the base nearby.”
Nebka Protective System | Sharareh Faryadi | Ferdowsi University | Iran
“Nebka Protective System is a concept that puts both ecotourism and resiliency against climate change at the forefront of its design. NPS is a new concept that, by organizing the spaces creatively, produces a space diagram which results in the survival of the cities close to deserts from the shifting sand. The architecture of this concept resembles natural Nebka sand hills, which grow a crown of plants and stabilizes the shifting sand to rescue the regions around “Kavir-e Lut” which are currently in an environmental crisis because of the impeding desert.”
