Continued..

Wood is another thing that can never be passé and never seems to lose its appeal with architects and hoteliers. "A fusion of fine-art and technology can bring an exciting edge of design to contemporary, and not so contemporary, interior spaces. Combining rich, natural colours and stylish, elegant design, there is a place for 'worked' wood in every private or public space. The range can be installed to create a coordinated effect appealing to interior designers and decorators. They are hand-sanded and finished in a durable lacquer which brings out the natural colours of the timber," says Vaibhav Sethi, design consultant at Intense Designs, Secunderabad.

Lobbies and guestrooms are getting bigger because they have to be multi-functional, with guests preferring to bet on the experience and lifestyle offered by hotels. Architects are being encouraged to pay more attention to spaces like bathrooms. This explains bath tubs with gold chips and transparent bathrooms. They are no more tucked away in some inconspicuous corner, but open in to living spaces. In fact, The Park Hotel, has bathrooms opening into the living space. Frosted glasses are definitely in vogue, while entirely transparent glass, with thin curtains, is also used.

Glass is also a medium, which has an uncanny characteristic of making the simplest design look breathtaking. Bringing together glass and water makes for a deadly combination. It wouldn't be too far fetched to think of hotels and restaurants being floored completely with glass or even have glass walls in India, as internationally the idea is already tested successfully. "Glass and leather flooring are an age old concept in countries like Japan and United States and is slowly picking up in India too," says Ponni M Concessao, Chennai based hotel architect and interior designer. "Hotels are now waking up to the beauty of glass and are willing to explore its potential. However, the biggest deterrent in using glass is the high cost involved, as glass is a very expensive material. But, its aesthetic appeal and the novelty it lends to the hotel's interiors make it extremely appealing", she observes.

Restaurants are also not so heavily theme-oriented. Today it is contemporary based, depending on the cuisine. Earlier if it was an Indian restaurant, everything from the furnishing to the cutlery to the décor would be heavily Indianised. The Haveli in Taj Mahal Hotel is a fine example of an Indianised restaurant, whereas the Taj Palace is more contemporary.

Future trends

With new concepts like boutique hotels, ecotels and budget hotels, taking India by storm, architecture has assumed renewed significance. "Hoteliers are more receptive to new ideas and international trends," opines, interior designer Ritu Bhatia Kler, director of TID International. "As non-hoteliers are now building hotels and the competition has increased, interior design has gained more importance," she says.

She points out that the different categories like the budget and boutique hotels invoke different design sense. "However, there is still a niche segment that fully understands this in India. For example, the favourite term is boutique hotel. But this is not fully understood by many and is therefore not designed as per international standards," she believes.

There are still very few hoteliers who experiment with high maintenance materials, like The Oberoi Group and The Park Hotels. But the picture is not so bleak as there are new hotels that are emerging on their footsteps.

Furnishing, lighting and glassy looks

One thing is for sure is that there is no more time lag between global trends and the Indian scene as globalisation has shrunk the world. Ponni Concessao is certain about ecology oriented trends in hotels, where the kind of materials used would also be on the same lines. "Hotels will be more nature oriented, organic and be minimalist. Lighting will also emulate nature and incline towards natural effects, with the help of technology," she avers.

There would be a shift towards oriental philosophy, with a stress on Zen and spiritual designs and simple, straight lined and horizontal shapes will be in vogue. In the west, rainbow lighting is used to emanate different colours, but this is yet to come into India. Natural lighting would be tapped and used even in the night. This is where the use of solar energy would be exploited for reduced power consumption. Space design would also become prominent where one form would go in to another to save space. Beds would merge into walls, rooms will merge into the bathroom and plastics would be utilised extensively to give a curvilinear look.

Guestrooms are going in for a major change asserts Chander K Baljee, CMD of Royal Orchid Hotels. "There are more open bathrooms and shower curtains will be done away with. Instead shower cubicles and glass enclosures would come into place," he says. He also foresees office chairs being used in rooms instead of dining chairs to make the guest more comfortable.

More contemporary, sleek furniture from China, Malaysia and Thailand will substitute the heavy chairs, while budget hotels might start going in for factory made furniture for their guestrooms. There would also be lesser fuss in elements like mouldings, cornices, carvings and more acceptance of lighter colours even though it requires more maintenance. A larger variety of materials will be used since they are now easily available.

Concepts influencing design

The exorbitant land costs are giving way for new ideas like mixed-use developments, airport hotels and soon the hospitality industry will be inevitably attached to infrastructure and software industry to service them. The future will see hotels occupying a major space in IT, food courts and hospitals. Even as these fresh ideas permeate Indian towns and cities, they will each give rise to novel shapes and varied furnishings.

Restaurants and bars will also become multi functional because of the soaring costs. A bar could double up as a proper restaurant in the day, serving breakfast and lunch, and serve liquor by the night. Again design elements like mirrors and shelves would be used to the rescue to perform the concealing act. Restaurants might also be leased out for private functions and technology like sound proof enclosures would be required.

While carpet, vinyl, wood and laminate have been the traditional choice for flooring world over, the future will see unheard versions like hardwood floors from regenerated trees, carpet made from recycled bottles, recycled wood and locally-produced, indigenous materials such as lightweight concrete and tile.

The hotel industry is in for exciting times in terms of designs and architecture and with foreign architects working on Indian hotels, there is bound to be influences from all over the world. Hotels have to be daring enough to test new waters and more importantly give architects a freehand. It is a fact that Indian hoteliers still wield control over projects and insist on interfering with design elements.

However, Sarabjit Singh avows that people have started minimalist designs unreasonably and without any logic. "We are pushing minimalist and contemporary way too much. It is unfortunately considered a trend," he says.

Only time will say if classical designs will make a comeback or if the future will hold improvised and evolved versions of the minimalist structures.

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