Supplier Question ‘Is Hotel Art Necessary?’
A debate has started brewing in the global hospitality industry about hotel art, a supply and design touch that is present in nearly every room in the world. Hotel operators and suppliers, however, have now begun to ask: is hotel art necessary?
The question was posed most directly in January buy a business piece published by the BBC, which straight out asked readers, "Is hotel art a waste of time?" At the center of this discussion was the Emperor Qianmen hotel, which is near the Forbidden City in Beijing. In the lobby of the aforementioned hotel it is not uncommon for guests to need umbrellas, unless they enjoy getting drenched. This, however, has nothing to do with bad pipes or a leak in the ceiling. It's entirely because of an art installation by Dan Euser, a Canadian artist who also designed a realistic waterfall for the hotel's spa.
The entire motif of the Emperor Qianmen hotel is that of a water hotel. See, this hotel just so happened to be built on the site of an old bath house, which gave the building's architect, Adam Sokal, the inspiration to craft an aquatic theme for his latest work. The result is a stunning hotel that has art placed all throughout, including a piece by Bingyi, a Chinese artist, titled Cave in Heaven, which is comprised of a vast ink and paper mural that manages to cover a total of 400 square meters.
The Emperor is not the only hotel in China to demonstrate a vast appreciation for contemporary and beautiful art. There is a brand new luxury hotel, Nuo, that features an astonishing collection of giant vases, all more than two meters in height, made in Jingdezhen, which has been known for its fine Chinese porcelain for centuries.
These sorts of hotels—which at times could double as museums of modern art, elegant and breathtaking in their scope—are becoming more of the norm in terms of luxury Chinese hotels, as brand owners and operators seek to carve out unique reputations in a sea of hotels that can tend to look the same. Art is one key way for one luxury hotel to stand out from another. So, in that regard, it is very much worth installing throughout. However, the key to doing this successfully is to work hard and ensure that the art is selected in a savvy and tasteful way, making the hotel feel more like a luxury private home. Art that is not carefully curated can lead to a negative impression on most guests, eliciting the opposite of the response hotel designers and suppliers sought in the first place.
Some experts say the key is to work with up-and-coming artists who are willing to take into account the hotel in which their work will land, rather than buying more prominent works from already established artists and forcing it to fit inside an existing hotel.
More information on Nuo and other Hotel Chains can be found on TOPHOTELPROJECTS, the specialized service provider in the exchange of cutting-edge information of hotel construction in the international hospitality industry.
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Lennart Kooy
associate partner TOPHOTELMEDIA
TOPHOTELPROJECTS
