Tablet was founded in the year 2000 by Laurent Vernhes and Michael Davis, a pair of new-media veterans who were tired of predictable chain hotels and faceless hotel search engines. On the principle that today’s traveler needs fewer choices, not more, they set out to create a tightly curated list, showcasing only the hotels that matter — hotels with personality, hotels that obsess on the details, hotels where experience beats economy. That list, after a decade of evolution, makes up the selection of TabletHotels.com, the trusted source for extraordinary hotels around the world.
The natural next step, of course, is to open a hotel. Anyone with enough money can open a solid-gold luxury hotel. Tablet’s hotel would be up for a conceptual challenge, tackling what might be hospitality’s hardest problem: creating a hotel that brings people together.
This is the holy grail of urban hospitality: a hotel where guests mingle freely with locals, and with other guests — where experience is shared, friendships are born, business contacts are established, and real human connections are made, all under the hotel’s roof.
Actual task
Create a hotel that connects travelers and locals.
What we are proposing is an architectural challenge, but also an experiment in human psychology. Many a hotelier has gone broke chasing an elusive crowd, and many a “hip hotel” has alienated its following with lazy (or greedy) gimmicks. A rigorously enforced guest list can create a buzz for a while, but it always fades when interesting people find themselves on the outside looking in. In today’s hotel business, the word “exclusive” is bandied about as a posh way of saying “really nice.” Nobody ever stops to ask who’s being excluded, and why. It’s all rather unbecoming, for an industry which purports to be about hospitality.
Main Objective
So above all the proposed solution must be inclusive. The winning hotel will be a place where people come together unpredictably, unexpectedly, serendipitously. Hotel Claska, in Tokyo, has transformed its oversized lobby into an open-plan office-share workspace, which naturally brings hotel guests in direct contact with the creative professionals who use it. And the Ace Hotel in New York features a lobby that combines the best features of a café and a public library, where laptop-toting freelancers mingle freely until nightfall, when the DJ takes over and the drinking and dancing begin.
While entrants need not confine their solutions to physical space alone — there are technological ways of making connections as well — the focal point should be the place (or places) where hotel guests and city residents are brought together. Think beyond the typical lobby bar, restaurant or pool deck, and draw inspiration from your own travels to design a space with the potential to revolutionize the ordinary hotel experience.
The proposed social space can be located anywhere in the hotel, and it’s only one aspect of the challenge — naturally, the way in which it connects to the rest of the hotel experience is up to you. Your entry should not use a pre-existing hotel space, but the location is limited to downtown New York City, south of 23rd street. This means an urban setting, with street frontage, and a hotel surrounded by buildings of a roughly similar size.
Ultimately the space itself is only a piece of the puzzle. It’s up to you to find a way to create natural, unforced social interaction. Serving drinks is a tried and true method of nudging things in the right direction, but the tricky part is assembling the crowd in the first place — especially if it’s an authentically diverse, eclectic crowd you’re after. The winning space must demonstrate that it stands a chance of bringing together people from all across the city’s demographics and psychographics. The real test, though, will come at the end, when the chosen design will be featured on Tablet’s website as a Tablet hotel, available for booking.
Key Insight
This is not a concept for a far-future hotel. Proposals should utilize existing materials and existing (or currently possible) technologies. The desire for human connection is a timeless one. A central goal is to merge the two audiences; local and guests, in an authentic yet compelling manner. And while tasteful (or otherwise attractive) interiors are important in selling the concept, the foundation for a winning submission is the concept itself, not the surface qualities. Remember: the winning design will eventually appear on Tablet’s website as a Tablet hotel and be available for bookings, meaning the amount of bookings will be the ultimate determinate of its success.
Congratulations everyone!!!! :)
Congratulations the winners
Congrats to all the winners : )
I'm really happy for all winners!!!!!
But who can explain me the 10-minutes-before-deadline-trick?
(why to fall down in any contest, 10 minutes before closing about 20 Places (in the garden contest even 120) - does it mean 20 / 120 People comes into every contest to hate down at the last 10 minutes ??
And now my question: Is it may helpful to change the name - 10 minutes before deadline? *-))
The only explanation I would have is that many people wait till the last minute to vote...I'm also wondering if its better to post a project at the beginning of the submission or near the end.... cause the rates might be influenced in different ways if you have 50 votes or 150 votes...
of course when you only have 50 votes every vote can make a major difference in your rate while with 150 votes...the votes have a small variation in your rank...
Congratulations to all winners! :) So... What next? Does this mean that no ideas were sold? Because I saw some lovely concepts out there (in my opinion). Or am I just the new girl who doesn't know how this works?
I'd like to know if it's all too, because if the jury did not buy any project, that means that we move away from what they were looking for and that is not good!!
Hey madugian,
This is not decided yet.
When will it be decided then? or better yet, how? why did I have to ask this?
When? We don't know. For some clients it takes days, others months. How? No idea, I don't work for Tablet.
what I mean by "how" is that they mentioned posting the winning project on their site, in the brief. Is that the sold idea? I know you don`t work for tablet, but since I can`t talk to them directly, I`m asking you.
Thanks Jeroen... I don't envy you your job right now. I agree with Juan Pedro, I was wondering if we had all missed the mark, but if it's not decided yet we shall wait.
I think part of the frustration people are feeling is due to the fact that apart from your updates on progress, there wasn't as much communication as one would have liked or had hoped for (like Mailtolast said, how winners were decided, the workings of the decision process). It is understandably a huge load of work to deal with and we do not know the inner workings of Jovoto, but it did leave one feeling rather antsy.
Would it be possible in future to give contestants a more structured timetable?
Hey guys,
I'll check on this. Will get back to you here as soon as I know the exact details.
Cheers,
Jeroen.
Cool, thanks.
Thanks,.
I am really disappointed rating system. My project "heart of the district" was on the first place during the whole competition/ Only on the last week before the end it doped few times on the second place and finished on the first place. I am not cheating. I do not understand how is it possible to be fairly?
Who knows? An entry wins the jury prize that never once saw a jury comment during the project, and copied an existing entry... All is fair in love and jovoto? :)
But congrats n the 2nd place! That is still huge, right?
@crossthelime
As you might have noticed not all jury members were commenting. But all jury members we're involved in the voting.
80% of the jury members were commenting... just not on the winning entry. And imho, the initial point of that entry being a little too close for comfort to existing entries was never addressed.
But like I said - all is fair in love and jovoto. :)
The problem is that I thought the whole competition was about redesigning hotels and thinking of a concept of what could work better, so I guess it's disappointing that what won was seemingly a concept that is pretty much like everything that's popping up in Brooklyn at the moment (I don't mean to knock the winner though - it was a really great presentation and a great entry). I guess any kind of jury prize is going to skew towards a more conservative entry, but it's a shame that something more bold and distinctive (like actually both of yours @zaarchitects and @crossthelime) didn't win.
I think with any competition like this it's always going to be really fraught. I think a lot of people had the same experience as you last minute, I guess it sucks to fall from first on the last day.
Guys,
As in with any competition you might agree or disagree with the jury decision. Whenever there is somebody's opinion involved there's room for discussion.
cheers,
Jeroen.
P.S. It would be nice if you could check with Tablet about paying BUSINS (http://www.jovoto.com/projects/rethink-hotels/ideas/21686) some sort of stipend... since they are using HIS renders on their website, and he didn't make a dime in this contest. Right now, it is copyright infringement.
I think the link to this image are realy helpfull. ;-)
CrossTheLime could you show as what do you mean?
@crossthelime
It's not. They are allowed to feature ideas in order to generate promo for the project. http://www.jovoto.com/information/terms/
Sorry, Jeroen is right.
I think a presentation on other pages is a good comercial for jovoto and for sure for the designers, directors, etc. So why not, if the posted idea is well presented?
@MIKAR - Thats right - As long as the owner of an image/idea/design is named and given credit.
That is still mean in a way... And they aren't linking or crediting BUSINS.
http://www.tablethotels.de/de/feature-rethink-hotels
Reminds me of the Victorinox discussion, where they at least credited us in the end.
Jeroen, can you please delete all of my non-winning entries then? It's what I would do in any other contest site - withdraw as soon as the contest is over.
I prefer keeping full control of my content, and not find it plastered all over the internet. Especially since I am currently in legal battles with two companies, caused by a similar situation... I am just fed up with legal stuff.
It is very logical. The customer receives only that for what he paid, I with you CrossTheLime
I also thought about the problem with closed ideas. Everyone is abled to watch the full descriprions of public projects and use them for their own work. This is true. Sorry.
Guys you brave and cool ideas.!! Such architectures are moving forward. If the Tablet chooses the usual solution, this problem of Tablet. But what I have to say that the new rating system, did not bring anything new. Everything is just as bad as before.
In this competition I agree with a jury choice, it is really interesting work. But rating system not new as soon as work gets in top-20, it start to beat. It is a pity that opinion of participants of community cost nothing, if system of a rating not to change that community will lose many really talented members :(
Congrats! to all the winners..
Congratulations everyone!!!
Congratulations everyone!
Congratulations!