We’re doubling down on immersive hospitality experiences at HIX 2023 with two new room-sets by two brilliant design studios. Read on to find out more.
Last year, we partnered with Belgian design studio WeWantMore, organic material artist Côme di Meglio and creative studio La Succulente to create The Mush Room – the world’s first bar made entirely of mycelium; a living, breathing network of organic roots grown to function as our show-stopping centrepiece.
Now residing in Kew Gardens as part of a summer residency, the Mush Room was a testament to innovative hospitality design – a suitably sustainable vision of our 2022 theme Great Things Will Grow.
But as the ever-changing design experience, we like to mix things up, and that’s why this year we’re going double or nothing. That’s right, HIX 2023 will feature not one but TWO interactive, engaging and immersive installations showcasing the cutting edge of hospitality interior experiences.
Guided by 2023’s theme A Room With a Point of View, London-based Blacksheep and Wrocław’s MIXD will channel the key issues of People, Progress and Perspective across a pair of room sets that explore the form and function of tomorrow’s hospitality spaces.
Set to be programmed with their own schedule of breakout sessions, talks and workshops, these installations will form the immersive heart of HIX 2023’s showfloor – places where our guests can meet, connect, celebrate and discover the next era of hospitality interior experiences.
We’ll be revealing more details via a series of production diaries in the run-up to this year’s event – taking place on 16 & 17 November at London’s Business Design Centre – where the spaces will be fully revealed.
In the meantime, here’s a taste of what to expect from each concept.
BLACKSHEEP
The Umwelt Paradigm
The concept:
Umwelt. Noun. The world as it is experienced by a particular organism.
‘Everybody – and every living thing – has a different way of seeing the world. We all inhabit our own sensory bubble, and bring our own ‘umwelt’ to each environment.
But does the same thing happen in reverse? Can the spaces we inhabit change us too? Do we shape them, or do they shape us?
At this year’s HIX, we’ll explore this dynamism and reactivity, highlighting how hospitality spaces can dictate, distort and manipulate – for better or worse.
And we’ll shine a light on the hidden influence our surroundings have on our viewpoint
Because every point of view is in flux.’
The studio:
Blacksheep are a multi-disciplinary creative studio designing complete experiences in the hospitality sector. They use non-conforming, original creativity to transform brands and spaces, and to deliver intelligent, multi-sensory design.
Their projects include hospitality interiors and branding for Marriott International, Accor, Fairmont and SH Hotels & Resorts amongst others, with recent designs including the Montcalm East Hotel London by Autograph Collection, St Regis San Francisco, Prince De Galles Luxury Collection Hotel in Paris and the new F&B destination NOXE at the W Hotel in Barcelona. The studio is also behind the F&B design of the highly anticipated upcoming launch of the Treehouse Hotel in Manchester.
MIXD
Unfinished Works
The concept:
‘Only a process that is ongoing, open, and efficiently adapts to what is happening around us is able to respond to the challenges of the present day – an era in flux, an era when the future is unpredictable. Designers must remember this and constantly look for new, better solutions.‘
The Studio:
MIXD is a design studio specialising in designing experiences in commercial interiors: hotels, offices, co-livings, and retail facilities. It employs agile methodology and the Design Cycles process to provide support and design for expressive, individual brands and spaces.
In every project, from lifestyle workspace to luxury hotels, MIXD focuses on human needs, well-being, and comfort. The studio transforms stakeholder ideas into original visions, and effective, refined projects. The studio, founded by Piotr Kalinowski and Katarzyna Majer-Hola, has been dynamically developing since 2018. MIXD has worked with Accor, Hilton, and Marriot hotel chains, and completed projects for brands including MGallery by Sofitel, Mercure, Hilton, ibis Styles, ibis, Hyatt, Mövenpick, and Fairmont.
Discover the next chapter of hotel design at HIX 2023 – 16 & 17 November at London’s Business Design Centre.
