| A provocative exhibition that spotlights contemporary hotels as the
crossroads of our connected yet nomadic society and underscores their role
in cutting-edge architecture and design. |
August 27, 2002 - �New Hotels for Global Nomads,� a new exhibition at
the Smithsonian�s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, demonstrates that
hotels today advance how people live in cities, travel around the world,
conduct business, commune with nature and even construct their fantasy
lives. The modern hotel not only offers a place to sleep, but also provides
its guests with an escapist experience, through its design, sense of spectacle
and amenities. The modern hotel also furnishes many of its guests with
a fully functional �office-away-from-the-office,� vital in today�s fast-moving
business climate.
�New Hotels for Global Nomads� combines architecture, interior design,
photography, film and works of art to show just how varied and dynamic
hotels can be today. Among the new generation of hotels explored in the
show areThe Hotel in Lucerne, which re-creates movie scenes on its guestroom
ceilings to express the hotel as cinematic experience; The Venetian in
Las Vegas, an outstanding example of the gambling capital�s new generation
of scenographic hotels; the luxurious, sail-shaped Burj al-Arab in Dubai,
the tallest hotel in the world, with many of its interior surfaces sheathed
in gilt.
Encompassing two full floors of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum,
the exhibition highlights more than 35 real and conceptual examples of
modern hotels and their services, as well as materials on legendary historic
hotels. The exhibition is organized into five themes � Urban Hotels, Hotels
as Global Business, Hotels on the Move, Natural Hotels, and Fantasy Hotels
� taken from the historic evolution of hotels. The contemporary projects
in the exhibition reinterpret and reinvent these historic themes to forecast
directions for the development of hotels in the 21st century.
Six installations or projects have been specially commissioned by Cooper-Hewitt,
National Design Museum for this exhibition. Many have been designed for
particular spaces within the Museum�s home, the former Andrew Carnegie
Mansion. Artist Tom Sachs is creating a room-sized work, entitled �Compact
Full Feature Hotel Room,� to be installed in one of the museum�s second-floor
galleries. Architect Joel Sanders has designed the �24/7 Hotel Room� as
a new model for accommodating today�s style of business travel, which merges
private, social and business activities. Maureen Connor�s �Roles People
Play,� an installation in a Carnegie family bedroom, explores the sexual
dynamics of hotel rooms. In addition to the special commissions, the exhibition
will present the premiere of a new work, �Private Dancer,� by artist Toland
Grinnell, and a new project, Lobbi_Ports, by the architectural group Servo.
URBAN HOTELS
Urban hotels were the products of epochal changes throughout the Western
world in the early 19th century. The opening of a new hotel signified a
city�s economic and cultural coming-of-age. Hotels also met the new middle
class�s growing mobility and provided public arenas where the grand � and
not-so-grand � could see and be seen. The hotel projects highlighted in
the exhibition show how the city hotel has re-emerged as design palace,
social mecca and urban jewel. Featured projects in the exhibition include
hotels in NewYork, London and Philadelphia by such leading designers as
Jean Nouvel, Philippe Starck and Antonio Citterio.
HOTELS AS GLOBAL BUSINESS
As early as the 1830s the public rooms of hotels had become modern agoras
where men conducted business. �Here you meet everybody and everybody meets
you,� English novelist Frederick Marryat noted at the time when he visited
America. While the hotel has long been a place to do business, hotels are
also big business in themselves. The projects in this section of the exhibition
represent key components of today�s global economy, functioning not only
as work and home environments for business travelers but also as depots
on a vast network of digitally connected sites. Design and architecture
also continue to play an important role in the development of new hotel
brands. In this section, projects range from Japanese capsule hotels and
André Balazs� Standard Hotels to the music video �Weapon of Choice,�
which is set in a Los Angeles business hotel.
HOTELS ON THE MOVE
No invention transformed modern life, and hotel culture with it, like
railroads. Beginning around 1840, urban hotels were constructed in close
proximity � and even physically connected � to grand railroad terminals.
Railroad cars themselves served as traveling hotels for tourists and businesspeople
alike, who enjoyed comfortable sleeping compartments and elegant dining
cars. Today other modes of transportation from airplanes to automobiles
inspire hotels on the move. Examples in the exhibition include the Habitation
Module for the International Space Station, which serves as a prototype
for space tourism in the future, and a conceptual hotel based on the module
of the tourbus.
NATURAL HOTELS
Hotels in natural settings emerged in the 19th century to provide respites
from city life and industrialization. Resorts in nature launched
new forms of hotel architecture. With an alchemist�s intent, designers
turned nature into a tourist spectacle. Even previously unpopulated areas
were converted into edens of leisure. And, by showcasing a region�s natural
scenery and marketing hotels and scenery together, resort hotels helped
reinforce national identity, linking Switzerland with the Alps and Canada
with the Rockies. Today�s �natural� hotels continue this tradition. The
exhibition examines some spectacular examples, from an eco-tourist African
spa in a pristine wildlife habitat to simple, artful tents by Dutch sculptor
Dre Wapenaar.
FANTASY HOTELS
Hotels are communities of strangers who gather outside their normal
environments for brief periods of time. As homes away from home, hotels
also encourage people to fantasize and, in the hands of designers, they
achieve an otherworldly, Alice-in-Wonderland quality via artful manipulations
of imagery, illusion and perception. The projects in this section prove
that eroticism and escapism continue to charge the design fantasies of
architects and artists today. Featured projects include the full-scale
installation �Roles People Play,� which explores the sexual dynamics of
hotel suites, and the ultra-luxurious Burj al-Arab. Throughout the
exhibition, projects are represented through models, digital imagery, furnishings,
music videos or full-scale installations. The show highlights the work
of such notable international figures as architects Jean Nouvel and Diller+Scofidio,
artists Tom Sachs and Sophie Calle, film director Spike Jonze, among many
others.
There are also investigations into the meaning and functionality of
the modern hotel experience through advertising, and its transference of
design principles to other industries, including aircraft seating and new
media technologies. Visitors will be able to interact with actual Japanese
capsule hotels, try on Eye-Trek movie goggles used on airplanes, and experience
a giant heart-shaped bathtub.
In addition to featuring contemporary projects, the exhibition will
include furniture, advertisements and photographs of such celebrated historic
hotels as Frank Lloyd Wright�s Imperial Hotel inTokyo; the Savoy in London;
the Waldorf-Astoria in New York; and the Americana in Bal Harbor, Florida.
These important precedents reveal the hotel�s tradition as a trendsetter
in design, technology and social customs. The Annunciator, a precursor
of the telephone or intercom, was introduced at Boston�s Tremont Hotel
in 1829 and increased guest privacy, a budding social concern at the time.
The exhibition is organized by Donald Albrecht, exhibitions curator
at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum since 1996. �This exhibition is
where design meets fantasy,� says Albrecht. �It�s timely, too. Opening
just over a year after the terrorist attacks, the exhibition shows that
our world is still committed to travel and tourism, and that hotels remain
key components of that world.� The installation of �New Hotels for Global
Nomads � is designed by Architecture Research Office, a NewYork�based firm
headed by Stephen Cassell and Adam Yarinsky. A specially commissioned project
by Architecture Research Office, �NewYork Nature Hotel,� will also be featured
in the exhibition.
|
Exhibition Walkthrough
New Hotels for Global Nomads is the first major exhibition to explore
the hotel as architecture, interior design and cultural phenomenon. Visitors
to the exhibition take a multifaceted tour of the modern hotel�s public
and private spaces as related to five thematic areas.
URBAN HOTELS
Urban hotels were the products of epochal changes throughout the Western
world in the early 19th century. The opening of a new hotel signified a
city�s economic and cultural coming-of-age. Hotels also met the new middle
class�s growing mobility and provided public arenas where the grand � and
not-so-grand � could see and be seen. The hotel projects in the exhibition
show how the city hotel has reemerged as design palace, social mecca and
urban jewel. Highlights of this section include illuminated lounge furniture
from the Lobbi_Ports system as well as a three-dimensional installation
of the Hotel Pro Forma. Also on view will be historic furniture and dinnerware
from the Museum�s collection that was custom-designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
for his 1920s Imperial Hotel inTokyo.
Clift ( 2001) San Francisco
Sanderson (2000) London
St. Martins Lane ( 2000) London
Philippe Starck and Anda Andrei
The newest hotels by developer Ian Schrager and the team who created
the Royalton, Paramount, and Hudson (NewYork), the Delano (Miami), and
the Mondrian (Los Angeles). Hotel Broadway ( 2001) NewYork
A teliers Jean Nouvel (architecture) and Antonio Citterio & Partners
(interiors)
A modern �grand hotel� under development by André Balazs, hotelier
of the Standard (Los Angeles), the Mercer (NewYork), and Chateau Marmont
(Los Angeles).
Loews Philadelphia Hotel ( 2000 ) in the former PSFS Building,
Philadelphia
Bower Lewis Thrower and Daroff Design
The Metropolitan Hotel (2002) NewYork
Loews Hotels
Represent the current trend of converting distinctive high-style office
buildings into hotels, as well as the hip value placed on modern design.
Hotel Pro Forma ( 1999) Ørestad City, Denmark; conceptual
project
ARCHITECTS and field OFFICE
Conceives every space within the hotel as a potential stage.
Lobbi_Ports ( 2002 ) conceptual project premiering in New Hotels
for Global Nomads
Servo
Acknowledging the importance of hotel lobbies as social spaces, Lobbi_Ports
is a system of capsules or pods that hotel developers and architects can
attach to the structure of existing buildings as additional sky lobbies
or observation decks.
�The New LasVegas� ( 2001) specially commissioned for New Hotels
for Global Nomads
Photographs by Richard Barnes
No city is so clearly identified with hotels as Las Vegas. Richard
Barnes�s photographs take visitors behind the scenes of the city�s newest
generation of fantastic hotels.
HOTELS AS GLOBAL BUSINESS
As early as the 1830s the public rooms of hotels had become modern agoras
where men conducted business. �Here you meet everybody and everybody
meets you,� English novelist Frederick Marryat noted at the time when he
visited America. While the hotel has long been a place to do business,
hotels are also big business in themselves. The projects in this section
of the exhibition represent key components of today�s global economy, functioning
not only as work and home environments for business travelers but also
as depots on a vast network of digitally connected sites. Design and architecture
also continue to play an important roles in the development of new hotel
brands.
This section features such artifacts as full-scale Japanese capsule
hotels, a full-scale component of the 24/7 Hotel Room, and the music video
�Weapon of Choice."
24 / 7 Hotel Room ( 2003 ) conceptual project commissioned for
New Hotels for Global Nomads
Joel Sanders Architect
A new solution for business hotels that serve as offices and temporary
homes.
W Hotels ( 1998 � present)
Rockwell Group, architectural developer of brand identity
A Starwood chain of �boutique hotels� that uses unique design cues
to identify its brand, as visually defined by the architecture firm responsible
for Mohegan Sun Casino and the Chambers Hotel.
�Weapon of Choice� ( 2001 )
Spike Jonze, director, and Fat boy Slim, musical artist
Starring Christopher Walken, this music video depicts a weary businessman�s
flight into theater and fantasy within the confines of a corporate hotel
lobby.
InterClone Hotel ( 1997 ) conceptual project
Diller + Scofidio
From the designers of NewYork�s Brasserie restaurant, an advertising
campaign for a fictional international hotel chain that proposes ways to
create the illusion of diversity via design while maintaining a reassuring
sameness wherever one travels in the world.
�#1289, Seekonk, MA� ( 2002 ) specially commissioned for New
Hotels for Global Nomads
Dike Blair
Artwork made from the generic materials of low-budget chain hotels.
Capsule Hotel Unit ( 2002 )
Kotobuki Company
�Capsule Hotel� ( 2001 )
Jeff Gompertz, Fakeshop
Actual Japanese capsule hotel units � originally developed in the 1970s
as extremely small communal bunkbeds � will be on display, as well as an
American artist�s video interpretation of them.
Standard, Hollywood ( 1999 )
Shawn Hausman
Standard, Downtown L.A. ( 2002 )
Koning Eizenberg and Shawn Hausman
Standard, NewYork ( 2001, unbuilt)
Gluckman Mayner Architects
Three versions of a new kind of business hotel created by André
Balazs and designed to meet the needs of a young, fashion-conscious business
traveler on a limited expense account.
HOTELS ON THE MOVE
No invention transformed modern life, and hotel culture with it, like
railroads. Beginning around 1840, urban hotels would be constructed in
close proximity�and even physically connected�to grand railroad terminals.
Railroad cars themselves served as traveling hotels for t ourists and business
people alike, who enjoyed comfort-able sleeping compartments and elegant
dining cars. Today other modes of transportation from airplanes to automobiles
and tourbuses inspire hotels on the move.
On view in this section are models of Living Units in Motion, Tourbus
Hotel, and the Habitation Module. Historic artifacts include suitcases
and travel trunks by Hermès and Louis Vuitton that convert into
furniture.
Living Units in Motion ( 1998 ) conceptual project
Carl de Smet / Uncontrollable Architectural Products
A light, temporary, mobile and reusable system of collapsible hotels
on truck beds able to accommodate large numbers of people for short periods
of time during such events as international trade shows, Olympic games
and even natural disasters.
Japanese Car Hotel ( 1995 ) conceptual project
Acconci Studio
Converts an otherwise ordinary car into a mobile hotel that sleeps
four.
Tourbus Hotel Rome, Italy ( 1999 ) conceptual project
Lewis.Tsurumaki Lewis
A proposed hotel for Rome and other cities that houses tourists by
the �tourbus� � a new marketing strategy that packages communities of like-minded
sightseers, from archaeologists to gourmets.
Habitation Module/International Space Station ( 2001 )
Habitability Design Center, Johnson Space Center
Designed as the residential unit of the International Space Station,
this design is also a sophisticated template for a comfortable hotel that
could serve the nascent space tourism market.
Lunatic Hotel ( 2 0 0 0 ) conceptual project
Hans - Jurgen Rombaut
An advanced and technically feasible proposed
hotel on the moon.
NATURAL HOTELS
Hotels in natural settings emerged in the 19th century to provide respites
from city life and industrialization. Resorts in nature launched
new forms of hotel architecture. With an alchemist�s intent, designers
turned nature into tourist spectacle. Even previously unpopulated areas
were converted into edens of leisure. And, by showcas-ing a region�s natural
scenery and marketing hotels and scenery together, resort hotels helped
reinforce national identity, linking Switzerland with the Alps and Canada
with the Rockies. Today�s �natural� hotels continue this tradition.
Eco-tourist spas are set within and among pristine wildlife habitats, and
extreme-tourist sites entertain guests in hotels made entirely of ice or
provide jumping-off points for high-risk sports.
This section of the exhibition includes Nestbivouac designed by Dre
Wapenaar that illustrates the artistry he applies to such projects asTree
Tent and Artcamp. A model and computer animation of ROY�s Wind River Lodge
will also be presented.
New Hotel for Mainstream Eco-Tourism (1997) Costa Rica
F T L
A proposal for a new eco-resort that combines remote and pristine nature,
environmental awareness, soft adventure, personal fitness and a high level
of luxury and attention.
Okavango Delta Spa ( 1997 ) Okavango Delta, Botswana
Wind River Lodge (2001) outside Valdez, Alaska
Cancer Alley ( 2000 ) conceptual project, Louisiana
ROY
Three resorts that offer guests an experience of nature that is both
dangerous and pleasurable, awesome yet safe.
TreeTent ( 1998) Garderen, The Netherlands
Artcamp ( 2001) Garderen, The Netherlands
Dre Wapenaar
Brightly colored canvas and steel designs, rentable at Dutch campsites,
called �functional art� by the artist.
NewYork Nature Hotel ( 2002 ) specially commissioned for New
Hotels for Global Nomads
Architecture Research Office
A seasonal hotel tower made of construction scaffolding and camoflage
netting that can be erected within city parks.
Art�otel (in design, 2002 ) London
Rockwell Group
Uses a vocabulary of organic materials and nearly imperceptible transitions
between inside and out, to bring the natural hotel to the city.
FANTASY HOTELS
Hotels are communities of strangers who gather outside their normal
environments for brief periods of time. As homes away from home, hotels
also encourage people to f antasize and, in the hands of designers, they
achieve an otherworldly, Alice-in-Wonderland qualit y via artful manipulations
of imagery, illusion and perception. The projects featured in the exhibition
prove that eroticism and escapism continue to c harge the design fantasies
of architects and artists today.
Highlights of this section include artist Toland Grinnell�s full-scale
travel trunk-cum-hotel furniture installation entitled �Private Dancer�
and the full-scale �Compact Full Feature Hotel Room� by artist Tom Sachs.
Burj al-Arab (1 999) Dubai, United Arab Emirates
W. S. Atkins
Teflon meets gold leaf in this stunning, high-tech Arabian fantasy,
the tallest hotel in the world.
�The Hotel� (1983 )
Sophie Calle
A group of photographs and texts that explore the hotel as a site of
spectacle and surveillance by documenting the artist�s experience as a
chambermaid.
�Love Hotel, Japan� (2000 )
Photographs by Peter Marlow
In Japan, where homes are small, walls are thin and many generations
live together, �love hotels� sell privacy, and Peter Marlow�s photographs
capture the guest�s experience.
�Compact Full Feature Hotel Room� (2002 ) specially commissioned
for New Hotels for Global Nomads
Tom Sachs
A cramped but functional room � complete with bed, toilet, sink, shower,
surveillance system, television, and phone � built in fantastic detail
with everyday materials.
�Sanitary Furniture� (1996 � 98 )
M. K. Kähne
A mobile shower unit that opens out of a small wooden trunk made of
mahogany and chrome.
�Private Dancer� (2002 ) premiering in New Hotels for Global
Nomads
Tol and Grinnell
A travel trunk that opens into a personal discotheque suitable for
a hotel room.
�Roles People Play� (2002 ) specially commissioned for New Hotels
for Global Nomads
Maureen Connor
Combines real furniture and film clips to explore the social and sexual
dynamics of hotel suites.
The Hotel (2000) Lucerne, Switzerland
Architectures Jean Nouvel
Re-creates movie images on the guest room ceilings to express the hotel
as a cinematic environment.
Stacked Hotel Room #9 (2002 )
Adam Dade and Sonya Hanney
A video and postcard that document the covert operations of two artists
who secretly dismantle their hotel room, stack its contents into a compact
sculpture, document the result and return everything to its original position
before checking out. |
�New Hotels for Global Nomads � is made possible by Loews Hotels. Generous
support is also provided by Maharam, with additional funding from Travel
+ Leisure Magazine, Kimpton Boutique Hotels, The Mondriaan Foundation,
Waterworks, andThe Ministry of Flemish Community.
Programs organized to complement the exhibition will highlight the Museum's
fall program semester and include
-
"Making the Scene: Hotels in Film," a panel discussion with artists and
architects on November 14;
-
the lecture "Grand Hotel: The Golden Age of Hospitality," a lecture by
David Watkin, professor of architectural history at the University of Cambridge,
on December 5; and a
-
lecture and reception about the Grossingers and other Catskills resorts
on December 12.
In conjunction with �New Hotels for Global Nomads,� a 160-page book with
200 color illustrations is being published by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum in association with Merrell Publishers (distributed by St. Martin�s
Press). The book includes an essay by Albrecht exploring the history of
hotels and how they serve as precedents for the contemporary hotels on
view in the exhibition and book. This introduction is followed by illustrated
descriptions of the highlighted projects written by Albrecht and museum
editor Elizabeth Johnson. Designed by Alicia Cheng, New Hotels for
Global Nomads is $39.95, and will be available in bookstores throughout
the United States and Europe beginning in October. |
