Reimagining The Post-Covid Hotel Design

Baskaran Kolathu, Vertical Head, Hospitality Architecture, Edifice Consultants outlines in detail the post-COVID design changes that will help hotels to contour a safe and superlative guest experience

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The immaculate, minimalistic resorts that cover the pages of the design magazines are dream destinations for some or an intermission from the bustling sounds of city life for others. Presently, the hotel industry is at crossroads with the pandemic. Before the visuals become the flashbacks to the good old days of merriment, we have to answer the question “How will people live when they travel around the world in a post-COVID scenario?”

The imagination of a designer and experience of the traveler are inextricably linked; the latter specifies and inspires the architectural pursuits, and the former shapes the built environment. The pandemic has changed these dynamics and informed the disciplines of wellness as the new force interconnecting design strategies in the wake of repercussions. It is time to harness the crisis to bring about positive changes.

The design of spaces adhering to the safety norms for halting the spread ofO CVID-19 requires a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, especially at the hotels and resorts of the future. A rather significant change in the hospitality industry predicts transformations in planning, design and operation.

Mapping Movement

When designing for the built environment and surrounding spaces, the movement of people through and between is paramount to the successful functioning of spaces. Within buildings, these spatial relationships should translate to improved health, wellbeing and productivity. It is essential to provide tangible narratives to the people on how to socialize or function at hotels, restaurants or resorts as well as define their movement. Spaces as signage providing practical and comfortable connections between people and spaces can ensure better investments and possession of an area, with all the economic and social benefits the process of designing entails.