FUTURE HOTEL ROOM

The Fraunhofer Society of Germany recently published their findings and predictions for the future of the hotel industry for both Germany and the world.

According to Business Week, its team of scientists and engineers have built a prototype in their 1,500 square meter “laboratory” in Duisberg, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. And it consigns carpeted box-rooms firmly to the past. Firstly the room itself is completely round. A centerpiece is a massive window, shaped like an over-sized ski mask, which by day gives hotel guests a view of the landscape, but at night transforms into a screen where films can be projected.

Changes also take place underfoot. Its carpet is lined with sensors which monitor the guest’s arrival and, without delay, heats the room to the required temperature. The bed simulates a light pendulum motion. “It feels as if you were being gently rocked from a seven meter long rope,” project leader Vanessa Borkmann said. “It’s like being in Nirvana.”

The creation may sounds like a futuristic gadgetry fest but, in reality, it responds to top end hotels worldwide which are already toying with conventions and standards when it comes to holiday accommodation. In Songjiang, China, guests can opt for underwater suites, minimalist rooms with a giant aquarium providing the walls. In the Swedish ice hotel, tourists relax in an igloo hotel which is permanently kept at five degrees. Beds are covered by animal pelts.

And such ventures have lifted the bar for German hotels—something which is all too clear to Klaus Scherer head of the Duisberg innovation center. “Here, hotel rooms are still an innovation-free zone,” he said.

I am not sure if I agree that Germany hotels are not driving innovation, just check out the East Hotel in Hamburg, or any other German Design Hotels members…

Click here for a slideshow from the Fraunhofer Society:

Posted in Technology, Design & Art, Architecture |

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