Hospitality Q&A: Designing for the 21st Century

July 18, 2006
By Eugene Gilligan, Senior Editor

CPN hotel editor Eugene Gilligan spoke with Kay Lang, president & CEO of Kay Lang + Associates, about the latest innovations in hospitality design. The internationally recognized firm specializes in designing four- and five-star hotels, as well as high-end residential and restaurant properties. Its signature projects include the Premier Coex Hotel in Seoul; the Yen Du Hotel in Shijia Zuang, China; and the Fairmont Pacific Rim and Residence Project in Vancouver.

CPNHospitality: Please talk about new trends you are seeing in hotel design.

Lang: The condo hotel trend has recently seen developers rush to sell, or convert part or all of their hotel properties into residential properties, or develop new mixed-use boutique and upscale projects with condominiums that will be returned into the revenue stream for the hotel.

Trends in guestrooms are leaning toward a more personalized room that is more than simply beautiful or functional. Plumbing fixtures, tubs and hardware now have the appearance of works of art rather than simply utilitarian objects, and are used as key design elements. Public areas within the rooms are mixing with more intimate spaces and are now becoming the norm.

There is also more innovative green thinking in hospitality-related product design. For example, I recently came across oxygen tiles, which are actually designed to improve the environment. Unlike porcelain or ordinary floor tiles, they are supposed to contain titanium dioxide, a compound that releases pure oxygen when it is exposed to sunlight (much as foliage releases oxygen during photosynthesis). The pure oxygen then reacts with common air pollutants, such as automotive emissions, and helps to neutralize them. Imagine using these tiles in outdoor restaurants in hotels or on roof-garden restaurants.

CPNHospitality: What amenities are now becoming musts in hotels?

Lang: Wireless high-speed Internet access, residential-style linens, more ease and comfort in guest surroundings and more personalized concierge services.

CPNHospitality: Spending by Generation X travelers is becoming a proportionally larger part of hotels' overall revenues. Do you design with this traveler in mind?

Lang: Yes, we do. This particular group is driven by the allure of entertainment and living combined. W Hotels was the first to pioneer this in our industry, by combining the bar with the lobby area. I've recently read about a property in New York City that has space that operates as a day spa and a bar lounge by night.

CPNHospitality: Do you have any project that you are most proud of, and why?

Lang: No. I always fall in love with the current project that I am working on.

CPNHospitality: With the continuing escalation of construction costs, do these rising costs influence your design plans?

Lang: Yes, rising construction costs set limits as to what the scope of the design concept will entail, and limits the end products. Budgets are always budgets.

CPNHospitality: You have designed hotels worldwide. What are the challenges to designing properties overseas?

Lang: Maintaining the appropriate flow of communication in a timely manner, and understanding the local customs and cultural differences. The Internet has made the information get there sooner, but communicating the design can be a problem. We recently completed a project in Korea where we showed photographs as examples of our design concept to the developer. Somehow, the design we had in mind got lost in translation.

nother example of cultural differences relates to a project in China, where mechanical engineering takes precedence over the size of guestrooms. In China, they tend to design huge mechanical shafts in between guestrooms, along with closets that are big enough for the technician to stand in and work. This often ends up taking away space and impacts the overall size of the room. This is of no concern to them. It's just a cultural difference you have to work around.

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