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BAR HOTEL RESTAURANT THEORIE • THEORY

ubiquitous by now and via travels spills back into the living room. “Whether brown,
green, ochre or mustard yellow – in combination with natural materials such as
wool, velvet or natural wood, one can use these colours to create a cosy atmosphere
which goes well with the cold season”, writes Dagmar Haas-Pilwat on RP-Online,
the web edition of the Rheinische Post. This sounds indeed as if a hotel was the
model here. One like the Bayerischer Hof in Munich. But it doesn’t even have to be
a luxury resort, even inexpensive accommodations such as MotelOne show with
their clever combination of design and merciless minimalism that one can indeed
live in the hotel rooms and the hotel lounge with its seating islands whereby Arne
Jacobsen’s Egg Chair above all has become the hallmark of the hotel chain. Then
there is, in most cases, a comfortable landscape of leather sofas. Stefan Lenze, Di-
rector and Head of Development, confirms the trend: “Our design is constantly be-
come more individual, more artistic, more luxurious and thus the experience does
so as well.”

Pictures as the ultimate status display
Grafik: Veronica Rusca, gosplan architects, IT-Genua All very well but what does this have to do with normal living? We are simply more

and more frequently on the move. Permanently, in fact. On business or by simply
picking up an overnight bag and heading to the airport. This feeling penetrates one’s
own four walls. And with it the pictures we ourselves are posting or finding on Ins-
tagram or other platforms. Their constant presence influences our view on what we

buying. Thanks to souvenirs, holidays were integrated into everyday life. With real
objects. Magnets of all things have become the number one of the most favourite
Hotel-Design: Blaupause für die eigenen vier Wände • Hotel design: blueprint for one’s own four walls find attractive and normal. In earlier times, what counted was the psychology of
souvenirs, even before handicraft, key chains or “country-specific garments”, a cur-
rent statistic (Statista) claims. Then there are various trash souvenirs – the little Eiffel
Q uite strange. You are invited by friends (or acquaintances, rather) and it feels Tower, the snow globe with the Matterhorn – as well as alcohol. But what remains
like staying at a hotel. A really good one, at that, with a bellboy and a recep-
when the last bottles have been emptied, the magnets are attached and the nearest
tion where no less than three friendly employees ask us if everything is okay. In any and dearest at home have been provided with pasta, cheap sunglasses and sandals?
case, there is a breath of holiday in the air while we are shown the apartment: The Then the longing returns and the mental movie. Do you remember: the room above
walls are beige, the tables cream-coloured and the sofa fabrics in natural tones. On the cliffs? The breeze drifting through the entrance hall? The lobby with a view of
the table lies an illustrated book on Angkor Wat or Athos; there are sparingly added palm trees? In 2017, more than 54 million Germans travelled; they spent a total of
accents such as mocha-coloured vases with a large blossom in each of them, nothing 73.4 billion euros, a bit more than 1,000 euros per person and trip (Statista). We in-
personal otherwise. A room for certain hours, not a classic home. A bit too tidy, a vest in experiences and images, also because each holiday lingers in the social net-
touch too cool and ubiquitous. Everything has its place and not one piece appears works. Here an Instagram picture, there a quick tweet, and gigabytes of data on cell-
to be too much. This could, of course, be the result of long deliberation or of a good phones and computers. Images have become the hardest status currency. Along with
interior designer, but, after a while, it feels like for having a drink we could just step them goes the changing of the home. The lightness, airiness of leisure time penetra-
outside onto a roof terrace with a view of Rome or Macau. This is not an isolated tes the everyday routine – with transparent fabrics, lightweight furniture, bright co-
case. In recent years, a rather creeping “hotelification” of our lives can be observed lours and perfect technology. In the end, atmospheres are what it is all about.
(and felt). Everything we have come to appreciate between Rio, Rome and Rimini
we bring piece by piece into our own four walls – objects, but, above all, moods. As Living according to the plug-and-play principle
much as these “home hotels” may vary when seen individually, there are three cha-
racteristics which keep turning up: simplicity, a sophisticated simplicity, which often Are hotels the new standards of interior design? For certain, since our concept of li-
comes along with deliberate casualness. Maximum comfort, in most cases only no- ving is presently changing. In the combination of well-designed interiors and flaw-
ticed at a second glance – for instance due to Dolby surround sound also in the bath- less service, a kind of market is opening up which blurs the borders between the old-
room and precise light control in the hallway – as well as a preference for well-sha- style hotel room, ultra-individual Airbnb lodgings and one’s own home. The “ser-
ped objects or should we rather say: design. In sum, this is not only a style of fur- viced apartment” offers long-term stays with all the advantages of a hotel (laundry,
nishing but an attitude to life which comes to light. cleaning, anonymity) and those of one’s own home (individual, cosy, a true retreat).
The proportion of this category in the German hotel market is a mere three percent,
Nonchalant moments of happiness as the Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomiezeitung reports, but it has great growth po-
tential. In the same publication, the futurologist Stephan Jung predicts that the gene-
I have to admit that one of my personal moments of happiness lately has been a B&B ration Y will change their jobs about 17 times and move house about 15 times. Thus
with a view of the rocky coast of Polignano a Mare. The swell, the cool breeze, the “moving and living according to the plug-and-play principle” just had to work. The
fresh air in a room that basically just consisted of a bed and a high ceiling. The war- personalized hotel shows how flexible we have become. Sociologists call it multilo-
drobe was a forged bracket from which the clothes were dangling; everything else cality whenever more and more people have several residences. In some metropoli-
disappeared in a container which somehow merged into the bed. There was no need ses, a mere 18 percent of the households are classic families. All the others are wor-
for any further pieces of furniture. This casualness could also work at home. The lu- king as atomized employees of the Easyjet generation. We can by now do without li-
xury of simplicity, inspired by a few days by the sea. A study by the Boston Consul- braries just as well as without wall units but not without outlets and Wi-Fi. And
ting Group from 2014 shows that almost 55 % of the billions of dollars we have been since we are travelling more frequently and farther, it will soon no longer be easy to
spent went for experiences of luxury. These are often also blueprints for one’s own say where we are at home in this changing world. One thing, however, appears to
life. It is above all due to a magazine that has furnished half the world in shades bet- be certain. We are increasingly more often living in more and more places. And these
ween cocoa and mother-of-pear: The “wallpaper*style” of the nineties has become can then easily look like a serviced apartment. As long as the reception is right.

148 • AIT 6.2019