Top 5 stories of the week: a new take on luxury, lighting up the walls and designing for niche hotel guests

800 533 Hamish Kilburn
  • 0

As Hotel Designs continues to focus its attention of Hotel Concepts and Flooring, Editor of Hotel Designs Hamish Kilburn breaks down a fairly luxurious week of top stories…

The overarching theme of this week’s news has been, without any doubt, designing luxury – and how to stretch the endless possibilities of a truly luxe hotel in paradise. This week we have witnessed The EDITION brand expand its portfolio with the opening of The EDITION Bodrum. On the same theme of redefining luxe, we also peeked our head through the door of a new  hotel in Greece which is the result of a perfectly polished father-and-daughter partnership.

In addition to this, Valé Architects continued to put Designing Instagrammable into perspective. As part of a series of five articles this month, the firm’s second installment focuses on how to design a hotel for niché guests – an concept that can often seem like an impossible task.

Writing about iconic design hotels around the world is one thing, but celebrating those at the core of design decisions is an entirely different matter. That’s right, The Brit List is back! Hotel Designs has just announced its industry partner as nominations flood in and our industry in Britain gears up for another spectacular evening celebrating Britain’s best designers, hoteliers and architects.

Do you – or someone you know – deserve to be on the list? To nominate or apply for this year’s Brit List, click here

Here are the top five stories of the week:

1) Inside Elivi Skiathos, Greece’s new take on luxury design

Birds eye view of the pool

Earlier this year, we took a sneak peak into what the next luxury hotel in Greece was going to look like and how it would fit in to the laid-back luxury scene. Well, Elivi Skiathos is now open and Hotel Designs popped its head through the door to see if the design vision became a reality.

2) Could this be the most innovative wallpaper in the industry at the moment?

LED wallpaper - black and white patterns

Wallpaper specialist Meystyle is about to launch the Conductivity collection with the mission to rescue walls from the background. The company has done this by integrating bold patterns with LED lights and crystals to create deep visual experiences that totally transform walls and wallpaper into works of art.

3. The Bodrum EDITION opens to lay down a new kind of luxury on the Turkish coast

From the next chapter in the growing EDITION legacy comes Ian Schrager’s visionary concept: The Bodrum EDITION. Schrager, in partnership with Marriott International, redefines the contemporary luxury hotel experience with his expanding global influence.

4) Designing Instagrammable: Guest-driven brand stories and how to better understand the mindset of niche guests?

In the second instalment of Designing Instagrammable, Valé Architects explores the routes as to why design has to evolve to cater to the modern traveller and how to understand the mindset of niche guests…

Design – and hotel design specifically – is centred around the end user. Therefore, as designers, we should be looking for avenues to better understand the people we are designing for.

5) Hotel Designs Brit List 2018 welcomes BIID as industry partner

The British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) has been named as the industry partner for this year’s Brit List.

Announced days after the news that nominations for the Brit List had opened, the event, which launched last year, acts as a platform in order to help amplify Britain’s most influential people in hotel design.

Hamish Kilburn / 10.08.2018

Share

  • 0

Fun fact: I’m usually the person friends rely on to organise trips, schedules, and group plans.

Workhighlights: Successfully coordinating events from planning through to delivery and seeing everything come together on the day.

Fun fact: I’m a keen cyclist and will happily bore people with copious amounts of cycling chat. My top cycling experience (so far) would have to be riding in the spectacular mountains of Crete.

Work highlights: Charles joined Forum Events in 2022. With a background in publishing, editorial media and events, Charles brings a wealth of experience to his role as Senior Production Manager. Having being involved with SPACE from the outset, he is excited to see the brand grow and develop.

Fun fact: People tell Sienna she gives off Bridget Jones vibes, and she loves to bake, always making sure there are shortbreads floating around the office

Work highlights: Sienna joined Forum Events & Media Group while studying Communications and Media, starting in the sales team where she managed and helped launch the first the PA Life Leading Venues of London SHOWCASE, where she built relationships with luxury venues across the capital. Drawn to the stories behind these spaces, she naturally transitioned into the editorial team, creating social media and editorial content. Upon graduating in June 2026, she is excited to be joining as Assistant Editor for Hotel Designs and SPACE.

Fun fact: When not working, Jess can usually be found tending to her kitchen garden in the Sussex countryside or foraging for herbs in the nearby woods. A keen grower, she recently studied a RHS Level 2 Diploma in the Principles of Horticulture during her spare time.

Work highlights: Jess joined SPACE magazine in 2022 and has since progressed from Assistant Editor to Editor. During this time, she has worked across many aspects of the publication – from shaping editorial strategy and overseeing operations to contributing to art direction and representing the brand on stage at industry events including Surface Design Show and WOW!house.

Alongside her role at SPACE, Jess has built a creative career spanning the arts, culture, design and travel sectors. Prior to joining the magazine, she spent more than a decade in the commercial art industry, in artist liaison, gallery management, and curating collections for the hospitality sector across hotels and cruise ships. During this time, she also worked on freelance projects as a writer, photographer, and creative content producer.
 
Jess studied photojournalism at London College of Communication and the Danish School of Media and Journalism and holds a first-class BA (Hons) in Culture, Criticism and Curation from Central Saint Martins.

Fun fact: Katy has spent years perfecting all kinds of accents and loves a good impersonation!

Work highlights: Katy has been with Hotel Designs since the beginning, way back in 2015 when Forum Events & Media Group acquired the brand.

During this time, she has fostered many meaningful relationships with clients from across the hospitality spectrum, as well as playing a pivotal role in the launch of The Brit List Awards, Hotel Designs MEET UPs, client-led roundtables and panel talks, brand and website redesigns, HD Wellness Sets, DESIGN POD podcast, Hotel Designs LIVE panel talk series, Accessible Design Talks and more. Katy is always on the lookout for the next opportunity to help grow the Hotel Designs brand even further.
 
Most recently Katy has stepped in to the role of Publisher at SPACE magazine, the printed bi-monthly publication focused on hotel design, architecture, and development.

Together these platforms offer a comprehensive 360-degree service encompassing digital media, print publishing, and live events – providing unparalleled value to advertisers, partners, and readers alike.