Zoku Wins Radical Innovation Competition
NEW YORK – On September 30, investment, operations, brand, design, contracting and manufacturing professionals from around the world gathered for the 9th annual Radical Innovation Award at the New Museum in New York City.
This year's finalists, Snoozebox and Zoku, presented their concepts to a live audience. Jury members posed questions designed to test the concept's feasibility of future development, and following this question and answer session, audience members voted for the idea they felt had the power to change the hotel industry. The creators of Zoku received the grand prize of $10,000 and the chance to have their idea further developed in the marketplace.
Facilitating global living and working for the travelling professional, Zoku creates a new category within the hotel industry. Japanese for family, tribe, or clan, it's a home-office hybrid, also suitable for long stays, with the services of a hotel and the social buzz of a thriving neighborhood. Zoku offers a home base with both a smart Zoku Loft (private areas) and social spaces (communal areas) to work, sleep, play and live in. Zoku was submitted by Hans Meyer and Marc Jongerius and designed by concrete.
"Zoku's vision of a home-office hybrid as a new type of extended hotel meets the market demand for a live/work space" John Hardy, CEO of The John Hardy Group and founder of the Radical Innovation Competition. "The audience saw the concept as one could make a difference in the hotel industry within the short-term."
Student Winner
In addition to Zoku, Yasmin Abdelfattah Soliman of Effat University was named the student winner for her Adaptive Balloons project.
Adaptive Balloons is designed to offer a refuge for people who have been affected by natural disasters and crises around the planet. A pop-up concept that can be installed and removed as needed, the adaptive tree is prefabricated to be installed on land or in water. The main tree body is designed as a hollow skeleton used to generate energy through vertical wind turbines, and hosts inflatable 'Balloons' made of vinyl skin on branches that extend outwards. The Balloons act as living spaces for those affected.
As the student winner, Soliman will be offered the chance to receive a two-year full scholarship to University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she will earn a Master's Degree in Hospitality Design, valued over $60,000. This is the first program to specialize in this field. She will also be offered an internship at Stonehill & Taylor, the renowned architecture and design firm based in New York City.
The Radical Innovation Jury:
Michael Medzigian, CEO & Director, Carey Watermark Investors; Jena Thornton, Managing Director, Eagle Rock Ventures; Simon Turner, President of Global Development, Starwood Hotels; James Woods, COO, The Bowls; Wing Chao, Founding Principal, Wing T. Chao Architect; John Hardy, CEO, The John Hardy Group; Claude Amar, Managing Director, The John Hardy Group International
About Radical Innovation in Hospitality Award Acting as a catalyst for new ideas in hotel design, The Radical Innovation in Hospitality Award challenges designers and students to put forward ideas that have the power to change the industry.
The Radical Innovation Advisory Board represents hotel industry influencers from branding to design and investment to development, and is comprised of the following individuals: Sebastien Bazin, Accor Hotels; Rob Kline, The Chartres Lodging Group; Vann Avedisian, Highgate Holdings; Glenn Nowak, UNLV School of Architecture; Cory Perlstein, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group; John Schoenfeld, Houlihan Lokey; Julia Monk, HOK; Michael Suomi, Stonehill & Taylor; Josh Wyatt, Patron Capital; Dave McCaslin, Hersha Hospitality; Jon Kastl, Champalimaud Design; Claus Sendlinger, Design Hotels AG; Michael Murphy, First Fidelity; and Jerry Haberman
Produced by:
The John Hardy Group; Founding Sponsor: Global Allies; Radical Level Sponsor: Accor Hotels; Official Partner: Sleeper magazine; Media partner: Architizer; Innovator Level Sponsors: InterServ, Collins Brothers Worldwide, DFL Legal, Webb Law Firm, UNLV.
About The John Hardy Group The John Hardy Group is a strategic, transformational development services firm for investors and brands engaged in hospitality real estate. Leveraging its international expertise, the group delivers feasibility analysis, project management, development management, and construction management, as well as project accounting for capex, renovations, redevelopment, and new development for both individual deals and entire portfolios.
JHG is recognized as the leader in providing creative solutions to complex building challenges, tapping its diverse team, using proprietary project research and planning, and specialized in-house software that tracks progress and budget conformance. The firm excels as a bridge between the ambition of its clients and project realization, having managed more than $6 billion in development-related assignments encompassing 870 hospitality projects in 35 countries. Offices are located in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Honolulu.
About Zoku
Zoku has invented a new category within the hotel industry with its home/office hybrids. Opened in Amsterdam in 2016 by Dutch entrepreneurs Hans Meyer and Marc Jongerius, Zoku was named after the Japanese word for family, tribe or clan. Zoku facilitates living and working internationally for the growing population of globetrotting talent. Moving far beyond putting heads in beds, the bold concept has won numerous awards, received rave reviews, and is celebrated for its lively Social Spaces and community structure which facilitates genuine connection. In 2018, Zoku achieved Bcorp certification - one of the few hospitality brands worldwide to have received this. For more information, visit https://www.livezoku.com/.
Maria Englund
Hooton - Fame planning & creative PR
+31 6 50433807
Zoku
